Family

Emergency
Communication Plan

A Simple Guide To Create

Your Own Plan
 Be Proactive.
Take Action.
Use This Simple Guide To Create
Your Family Emergency
Communication Plan

Join All The Proactive People Preparing For

Unexpected Emergencies Across the Country

Building your Family Emergency Communication Plan begins with asking

yourself a set of thought-provoking questions: 

“If something was to happen to my family in my absence, what then?”

“How will I be able to communicate with them?”

“Can I find out if they are safe or not?”“Is there a way for me to let my
family know that I am safe?” 

In the wake of a major disaster, you will need to communicate with

your family somehow.

In extreme emergency situations, communications networks and cellular

towers could potentially be unreliable due to power outages and
downed lines. 

Being prepared ahead of time will ensure all family members in your
household - this includes children, people with disabilities, and others
with access and functional needs.

Have a clear idea on how to reach each other and where to meet up in
emergency situations.

1.
Planning Begins With The Following

1. Gather Information

Create digital and hard copy backups of critical contact

information for your family and other essential people, like health
facilities, service providers, doctors, schools, extended family.

2. Share The Information

Make sure every family member carries with them a copy of
these emergency contacts in backpack, wallet, purse or vehicle.
In addition, post a copy where everyone in your home can see it,
such as by the refrigerator or your family bulletin board.

3. Rehearse and Practice

Make sure every family member carries with them a copy of
these emergency contacts in backpack, wallet, purse or vehicle.
In addition, post a copy where everyone in your home can see it,
such as by the refrigerator or your family bulletin board.

If you are using a smartphone or tablet, sending a text

message, or Whatsapp message will get your messages
through when voice calls will not. Text messages
typically require far less bandwidth than a voice call.
Messages can save and buffer, and when capacity
returns, they will automatically send themselves.

SanePrepping.com 2.
 Gather Information
The rest of this guide will walk you through the process to create
and rehearse your Family Emergency Communication Plan.

1. Family Information
Record the contact information for all members of your family complete
with phone numbers, email and any social media handles just in case.
Having hard copies of contact information will help you reach out to others
in case your battery runs out or if you happen not to have your smartphone
with you. 

Now, if you have a family member(s) that is hard of hearing or deaf, or has a
speech impairment, and or uses a video relay service (VRS), make sure to
add information on how to connect to relay services on a computer,
smartphone, or landline phone.

2. School, Childcare, Caregiver, and Workplace Emergency Plans

STEP #2
Disasters can decide to rear their ugly heads at unpredictable moments
during school or work hours, and you need to have an emergency
response plan to combat them. Go over your plans with your children, and
let them know who can pick them up in emergencies. 

Next everyone in your family must be signed up for emergency alerts and
warnings from your local government, school, work and other sources. For
your kids with smartphones and gadgets, make sure they know how to
follow the alerts with help from a responsible adult, like a teacher or
school principal.

3. Out-of-Town Contacts
One important strategy is to have someone you trust outside your
immediate community or State, who can be central communication hub to
help your family members reconnect with each other. When the local
phone lines are down or jammed, making long-distance calls tends to be
easier than making local calls.

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 Emergency Meeting Areas

Pick a secure and familiar meeting spot that your family can go to for refuge
and to reunite after some chaos. Make sure these safe meeting places are
accessible for family members with special needs and disabilities. For your
pets and service animals, think about pet-friendly meeting locations. 

Pinpoint the following locations:

Indoor Locations
If where you live is an area frequented by hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, or were
other treacherous storms that can happen. Make sure everyone knows where to
go for shelter and safety. This can be as simple as a small windowless room like
closet spaces, bathrooms, sturdy basements, and storm shelters.

Your Neighbourhood
This is a designated meeting area in your neighbourhood where your family
members will meet up if an emergency or fire crops up  forcing you to leave
your house. It could be at a local school, playground or at a common feature in
your area like a huge tree.

When you are out of your neighbourhood

These are safe meeting spots for when disaster strikes when you’re not at home
and you can’t go home immediately. Places like this include churches, libraries,
community centers or a friends house.

When You Are Out of Town or City

It's also a good idea to have an out-of-town meeting location that can help you
reconnect with loved ones after a disaster happens and:

You aren’t able to get home or make it to your out-of-neighbourhood meeting

spot 
Your family is dispersed somewhere else and your local area needs to
evacuate the danger zone

Your rendezvous meeting places can be a family friend’s home or relatives, and
even your family’s cabin or second home will do, provided its not within the
disaster zone.
Make sure everyone has the address of the safe meeting location and review the
different routes for how to there.

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 Share Your Info
In addition to family contact information, record the phone numbers of
utilities, emergency services, service providers, insurance companies,
lawyers, financial institutions, veterinarians and other providers.

Create Copies of Your Communication Plan

Create copies of your Family Emergency Communication Plan for each
person in your family to carry in the purse, backpack, or wallet. Pin a copy of
your Communication Plan on a central bulletin board in your house.
Routinely check to make sure your family members are carrying their plan
on them
Share Your Communication Plan
Share all family and emergency contact information across all the
smartphone and tablet devices in your household. This includes laptops as
well.

Your "In the Event of Emergency" Contact

Enter at least one emergency contact under the name “In the Event of
STEP #2
Emergency” for all your smartphones and devices. This will help you or
other good Samaritans to identify your emergency contact if needed. Let
your emergency contact know of any medical issues

Use a Group List

Make a group list on all the smartphones in your household of the people
you will need to reach in the event of an emergency or disaster

Get Them Ready

At the very least, make sure all family members and your out-of-town
contacts know how to send text messages using a smartphone or tablet
device. If not, they should know about other approaches to communicate
with you.

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 Rehearse & Practice
Once you have formulated the perfect Family Emergency
Communication Plan, and made digital and paper copies for all
members in your family, reviewed it thoroughly - it finally time to
practice and rehearse your plan!

Have a discussion on what information to send by text message. The

key thing is to let people know where you are and that you are safe.
Keep it short and sweet like “I'm Okay. At Grandpas house” are great
ways to assure people.

Discuss with your family who will be the main person to send out
details about the safe meeting place you have chosen for your
household.

To rehearse and practice, gather all your family members at both your
indoor and neighbourhood emergency meeting spots. Discuss the
various routes each person can take to get to the out-of-town and
out-of-neighbourhood meeting locations. Also think about all modes
of transportation, like public transport, railway, by boat, vehicle - and
don’t forget to consider people with disabilities and special and
functional needs as well.

Routinely have chats with your family and friends about your
communication plan, like who and how to text or call, where to go and
so forth.

Challenge your family members to recall important phone numbers

from memory - to show why it's critical to have your phone numbers
written down.  Instead of searching for a name, simulate remembering
specific phone numbers and addresses without looking it up. This can
save your live quite literally.

SanePrepping.com 6.
 Rehearse & Practice
Everyone in your family, including children, must know how and when
to call 911 for help. Call 911 only when there is a life-threatening
emergency

Make sure everyone, including children, knows how and when to call
911 for help. You should only call 911 when there is a life-threatening
emergency you are facing.

Review, amend, and rehearse your Family’s Communication Plan at

once or twice per year. This includes whenever certain contact
details change as well.

To help initiate the conversation or remind your family why you are
taking steps to prepare and rehearse, you may want to watch the
following video about a town in the US and how they are preparing
themselves - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPDbacIBiZM

After watching the video, talk about you observed and learned from it.
What could be improved? What's working well with their plan? What
information needs to be updated considering what you watched?

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 Crucial Tips For Communicating
With Each Other In Disasters

Using texting apps with your smartphone is best, and when making
phone calls, make it brief and communicate only critical information to
family or emergency personnel. Text reduces network congestion, and
frees up space on the network for other time sensitive communications,
and saves your battery power.

Wait at least 10 seconds before redialing a particular number.

Redialing the same number too quickly will just clog the network as the
data from your device to the cell towers will not have enough time to
clear up before you resent the same information. To save on battery
power, reduce your screen brightness, using airplane mode, turning of
data on apps not in use. Also avoid watching videos or playing any
graphic intensive games to lower network traffic for others.

Buy and store fully charged batteries, portable solar charger for
backup power to charge you smartphones, devices, two-way radios
and other items. When you are not on the move but want to use you
vehicle to charge your phone, make sure you are not in an enclosed
area like a garage to avoid life-threatening carbon monoxide
poisoning.

Keep your eyes peeled on the road. Don’t text and drive at the same
time. Read texts and make calls using bluetooth handsfree. Avoid calls
if you can, limit them to urgent situations only.

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 Crucial Tips For Communicating
With Each Other In Disasters

Now, I know most homes are removing their landline systems to opt for
wireless, however if you still have a landline or analog phone, it can be
useful when cell service is unavailable. Deaf people and those who
have speech impediments and use services that rely on technology
(VRS, Wifi-enabled devices), should have an analog phone (TTY, caption
or amplified phone). Include a backup battery in case your wifi or cell
service is down

If you have call-forwarding on your landline, forward it to your

smartphone as well. It's very useful especially if you have evacuated
your home and someone calls you.

You can also message people by email, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram

and other social media outlets. These channels allow you to share
information quickly with a wider group of people - and you can find
out if loved ones are safe. It goes without saying that you can use the
Internet for making calls (VOIP). For people with speech disabilities or
are Deaf, make your calls using your IP Relay provider.

If you don’t have a cellphone, keep a prepaid phone card to use if

needed for the course of a disaster.

If payphones are available, keep some change so can use them. The
network traffic on public payphones is low since they don’t rely on
cellular towers or electricity. Some will potentially have TTY for use by
Deaf people or people with speech impairments.

SanePrepping.com 9.
 10 Ways To Prepare For
Unexpected Emergencies

Sign up for Emergency Alerts

and Warnings

Test Out Your Modes

of Communication

Build Your Emergency Stockpile

of Food & Water

Initiate a Dry Run or Rehearsal of Emergency

Response With Family

Take Part In A Course, Meeting or

Volunteer with a CERT Group

Prepare and Plan In Advance, Involve Family,

Friends & Neighbours

Create A Comprehensive Family

Emergency Preparedness Plan

Fortify Your Home Structures and Buildings, Do the

Renos & Upgrades
Thoroughly Document Photos of Your Home And
Make Sure Your Insurance is Up To Date

Protect Confidential Family Documents

that Run Your Life

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Family Emergency Communication Plan

Household  Contact Details

Home Phone: ................................................................................

Physical Address: .........................................................................

Full Name:......................................................................................
Cellphone #: .................................................................................
Social Media & Other #: .............................................................
Email Address: ..............................................................................
Critical Medical Details: ..............................................................

Full Name: ......................................................................................

Cellphone #: ...................................................................................
Social Media & Other #: ...............................................................
Email Address: ..............................................................................
Critical Medical Details: ..............................................................

Full Name: ......................................................................................

Cellphone #: ...................................................................................
Social Media & Other #: ...............................................................
Email Address: ..............................................................................
Critical Medical Details: ..............................................................

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Family Emergency Communication Plan

School, Daycare, Caregiver & Workplace

Emergency Response  Details

Name: .............................................................................................
Emergency Hotline #: ................................................................
Physical Address: .........................................................................
Social Media & Website:..............................................................
Emergency Response Plan : ......................................................

Name: .............................................................................................
Emergency Hotline #: ................................................................
Physical Address: .........................................................................
Social Media & Website: .............................................................
Emergency Response Plan: .......................................................

Name: .............................................................................................
Emergency Hotline #: ................................................................
Physical Address: .........................................................................
Social Media & Website: .............................................................
Emergency Response Plan: ......................................................

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Family Emergency Communication Plan

In Case Of Emergency: Contact Details &

Out Of Town Emergency Contacts

Full Name:......................................................................................
Cellphone #: .................................................................................
Social Media & Home #: .............................................................
Email Address:.............................................................................
Physical Home Address:.............................................................

Full Name: ......................................................................................

Cellphone #: ...................................................................................
Social Media & Home #: ...............................................................
Email Address: ..............................................................................
Physical Home Address:..............................................................

Full Name: ......................................................................................

Cellphone #: ...................................................................................
Social Media & Home #: ...............................................................
Email Address:..............................................................................
Physical Home Address:..............................................................

.........................................................................................................

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Family Emergency Communication Plan

Emergency Meeting Locations

Indoor Meeting Place:.................................................................

Instructions: .................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
Neighbourhood Meeting Place:...............................................

Instructions: ...................................................................................
.........................................................................................................

................................................
Out Of Town Meeting Location:
Physical Address: .........................................................................
Instructions: ..................................................................................
.........................................................................................................

.....................................
Out Of Neighbourhood Meeting Area:
Physical Home Address:..............................................................
Instructions: ...................................................................................

.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................

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Family Emergency Communication Plan

Vital Numbers and Contact Details

Police: ........................ Dial 911 or Direct #: .................................

Police: ........................ Dial 911 or Direct #: .................................
Doctor: ........................................... Direct #: .................................
Doctor: ........................................... Direct #: ..................................
Dentist ........................................... Direct #: ..................................
Pediatrician .................................. Direct #: ..................................
Medical Clinic / Hospital: ..................................... #: ....................
Pharmacy: ..................................... Direct #: .................................
Health Insurance: .................................... #: .................................
Policy Number: .............................................................................

Health Insurance: .................................... #: .................................

Policy Number: .............................................................................
Property Insurance: .................................... #:..............................
Policy Number: .............................................................................
Flood Insurance: .................................... #: ................................
Policy Number: .............................................................................
Poison Control: .................................... #: ....................................
Veterinarian: .................................... #: ........................................
Water Company: .................................... #: ..................................
Electricity Company: ................................. #: ..............................
Gas Company: ................................. #: .........................................
Alternate / Accessible Transportation: ....................................
..........................................................................................................
SanePrepping.com 15.
Be Proactive.

Take Action.

Be Prepared.

SanePrepping.com