What Should Be in a Family Emergency Plan?

A family emergency plan should cover how you'll reach each other when phones stop working, where you'll meet if you're separated, what makes you leave home and how you'll go, what supplies you have and where they are, who is responsible for what, and the medical and contact details someone would need if you can't speak for yourself. It should be written down and practiced.

Should you plan for each type of disaster?

Most families who try to write a hurricane plan, a fire plan, a winter storm plan and an earthquake plan never finish any of them. The list has no end, and most of those plans repeat the same actions anyway. A more useful approach is to plan for the consequences that show up across many different events. A storm, a grid failure and a wildfire can all leave you without power. A fiber cut, a network outage or a disaster can all take out phone service. Floods, fires and chemical spills can all force you out of the house. And almost anything that happens on a weekday will find your family spread out between work, school and errands.

If you build solid plans for a power outage, a loss of communication, an evacuation and a separated family, you've covered the response to dozens of events. Start by checking which hazards are most likely where you live with our local risk lookup by ZIP code, then pick the consequence that seems most likely. Our quick-start guide to condition planning walks through how to define each one and write the steps that go with it.

What are the core parts of the plan?

Every household is different, but nearly every good plan has the same building blocks.

• Conditions. The situations you're planning for, each with a clear definition so everyone agrees when the plan is in effect.
• Communication. A primary way to reach each other and at least two or three fallbacks if that fails, plus an out-of-area contact everyone checks in with.
• Meeting places. One right outside the home, one in the neighborhood, and one outside your area.
• Evacuation. What triggers leaving, where you'll go, and a primary and alternate route.
• Sheltering at home. Which room you use for severe weather, how you'll heat, cool and light the house, and how long your supplies last.
• Supplies. What you have, where it's kept, and when it was last checked.
• Responsibilities. Who grabs the kids, who handles pets, who shuts off the water if a pipe bursts.
• Critical information. Medical needs, allergies, doctors, insurance and a printed contact list.

Communication tends to be the weakest part of most plans, because people assume the phone will work. We cover it in depth in how to make a family emergency communication plan.

Who needs to know what?

Every adult in the house should have the whole plan and be able to run it without the person who wrote it. If one parent built it and the other has never read it, you have a plan that only works on days when that parent is home and reachable.

Kids need the parts that apply to them, at a level they can handle. A six-year-old should know a parent's phone number, the near-home meeting spot, and which adults are allowed to pick them up. A teenager can carry the full communication plan and knows the evacuation routes. Babysitters, grandparents who help with pickups, and the out-of-area contact should each get the pieces they'd be expected to act on.

The simplest way to keep everyone on the same version is to share one plan rather than emailing copies around. In ReadyPlan, each family member gets the shared plan on their own account and device, so an update one person makes reaches everyone else.

Should the plan live on paper or on a phone?

Both, and for different reasons. A phone is the easiest place to build and revise a plan. Addresses change, kids switch schools, someone gets a new job, and editing a digital plan takes a minute. ReadyPlan's guided setup builds a working first draft in about 15 to 20 minutes based on your location, household size and the risks in your area, and you review and finish it from there. Plans store on the device after the first sign-in, so they're readable without internet or cell service.

Paper covers the case where the phone is dead, lost or broken. Once the plan settles down, write the final version somewhere it will last. The Contingency Planner Complete Kit is a fabric binder of stone paper sheets that hold up to water and tearing, with sheets for condition plans, PACE plans and EXFIL (evacuation) plans, and a guide on the back of each one. ReadyPlan also exports to PDF if you'd rather print a backup.

How do you keep the plan from going stale?

A plan that was accurate two years ago probably has a wrong phone number, an old school, or a meeting spot that has since closed. Review it at least twice a year, and any time something big changes, such as a move, a new baby, a new job or a new school.

Practice matters as much as the review. Walk the kids to the near-home meeting spot. Run a check-in where everyone has to use the second method on the list instead of the first. Drive the alternate evacuation route on a quiet weekend. Each run will turn up something that looked fine on paper and doesn't work in real life, and that's the point of doing it.

Common questions

How long does it take to make a family emergency plan?

A usable first draft takes an afternoon, and a guided app can get you there in under half an hour. A complete plan that covers several conditions, with routes driven and communication tested, usually comes together over a few weeks. Building one condition at a time works better than trying to finish everything in one sitting.

What's the difference between an emergency plan and an emergency kit?

The kit is the stuff, meaning water, food, lights, first aid and batteries. The plan is what your family does with it, including how you'll communicate, where you'll meet, and when you'll leave. A kit without a plan leaves everyone improvising, and a plan without supplies can't be carried out for long.

How often should we practice the plan?

Twice a year is a reasonable baseline for a full walkthrough, with short drills in between. Practice the parts most likely to be used, which for most families means communication fallbacks and meeting places. Test anything new right after you add it.

Do renters and apartment dwellers need a different plan?

The parts are the same, but the details change. Apartment residents should know every stairwell exit, where the building's meeting point is, and who manages utilities and repairs. Renters should also keep a copy of the lease and renter's insurance policy with the rest of their important documents.

If you want a guided starting point, try ReadyPlan with its 7-day free trial and see what your first draft looks like.