3 Important Steps to Help Protect Your Family Before Disaster Strikes
Many natural disasters happen with little warning. A hurricane can suddenly change course, a wildfire can spread quickly, or a severe storm can leave families without power and access to essential services. Taking time to prepare now can help you and your loved ones respond safely and confidently in the event of an emergency.
This Disaster Preparedness Month, here are three important things you can do at home to help protect your family before disaster strikes.
1. Build an Emergency Kit
An emergency kit provides essential supplies if you need to shelter in place, lose power, or evacuate. Keep your supplies together in an area that is easy to access and check your kit regularly to make sure food, medications, and other essentials have not expired.
Your emergency kit should include:
- Water: At least one gallon per person per day for several days
- Food: Several days' worth of nonperishable food
- Battery-powered or hand-crank radio
- Flashlight and extra batteries
- First aid kit
- Dust masks to help filter contaminated air
- Moist towelettes, hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes
- Wrench or pliers for turning off utilities when necessary
- Manual can opener
- Local maps
- Phone chargers and a backup battery
- Nonprescription medications, such as pain relievers, antacids and anti-diarrhea medication
- Feminine and personal hygiene supplies
Consider the specific needs of everyone in your household when building your kit. Children, older adults, people with disabilities, and pets may require additional supplies or medications.
2. Make a Family Communication Plan
Your family may not be together when an emergency occurs. One person could be at work while another is at school or somewhere else nearby. Establishing a communication plan ahead of time helps everyone know how to check in and where to go.
Talk with your household about:
Important contact information: Keep phone numbers for family members, schools, workplaces, and other essential contacts together in one place.
Who contacts whom: Establish a communication chain so everyone knows who they should check in with first.
Where to meet: Choose familiar locations where your family can reunite if you cannot return home.
How to communicate: Text messages may be more reliable than phone calls when cellular networks are overwhelmed.
An out-of-area contact: Consider identifying someone outside your immediate area who can serve as a central point of contact for your household.
Don't wait until an emergency to discuss the plan. Make sure everyone knows where the information is kept and understands what to do.
3. Know Your Evacuation Plan
Some emergencies require families to leave home quickly. Wildfires, floods, hazardous-material incidents, and other disasters can create dangerous conditions with little time to prepare.
It’s important to know ahead of time what you and your family will do if an evacuation order is issued.
Identify your evacuation routes. Learn the routes recommended by local emergency officials and identify alternate routes in case roads are blocked or conditions change.
Plan your transportation. Keep your vehicle maintained and, when possible, avoid letting the fuel level drop too low. If you don't drive or don't have access to a vehicle, make arrangements with family members, friends, or neighbors before an emergency occurs.
Know where you will go. Identify potential places to stay, including with family or friends outside the affected area.
Leave when instructed. Waiting can limit your options and make evacuation more dangerous. Follow instructions from local authorities and take your emergency kit with you.
Your evacuation plan should also account for children, older adults, people with disabilities, pets, and anyone else who may need additional assistance.
Small Steps Can Strengthen an Entire Community
Disaster preparedness extends beyond the walls of your home. Learning how to prepare, sharing reliable information, and helping neighbors make a plan can strengthen an entire community.
Explore 12 simple actions to help yourself, your family and your community become more prepared for an emergency and learn more about emergency planning in The Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Services Disaster Preparedness Handbook.
Stay Prepared. Stay Informed.
The best time to prepare for a disaster is before it happens. Build your emergency kit, create a family communication plan, know your evacuation routes, and stay informed about the risks in your community. These simple steps can help you and your loved ones respond with greater confidence when an emergency occurs, while immediate resources and long-term support from The Salvation Army are available to help when disaster strikes.