Does Your Family Have An Emergency Plan?

An emergency can happen to your family at any time. Whether an accidental fire in your home, or as a result of a natural disaster in your area, you could be forced to evacuate, or you could be trapped at home. If you were to lose power, water, or your phone service, would you know what to do? Emergency workers will respond to a scene after a disaster, but depending on the scale they may not be able to reach your family right away.

You should always try to be prepared before disaster strikes. Meet with your family in advance to develop a plan for how you will react in an emergency situation. Here are a few tips from the American Red Cross for how you can share responsibilities with your family and work as a team to stay safe in the event of an emergency or disaster:

• Talk to your family about what kinds of emergency situations could arise, and explain what to do under different circumstances.
• Decide upon a meeting place. If it is a sudden emergency, this might be just outside your home. For situations where you can’t get back home, you should have an agreed upon meeting point outside of your neighborhood. Make sure everyone knows the address and phone number of this location.
• Pick an out-of-state friend or relative to be your family’s emergency contact. Often in a disaster, it may be easier to call long distance. Everyone in your family should know this person’s number, and in an emergency call this person to tell them where they are.
• Develop an evacuation plan, and make sure to consider how you will take care of your pets.

It’s very important that you practice your plan with your family regularly so that everyone remembers what to do. Check out the American Red Cross online for more information about developing an emergency safety plan and checklist. Also, we’ve got some more tips from the Red Cross about preparing your kids for emergencies, and developing a disaster kit right here at the AMW Safety Center.