How to Make a Family Emergency Plan

A family emergency plan is just a short set of decisions you make now, while everyone is calm, so no one has to make them in the dark during an outage. It comes down to four things: how you will reach each other, where you will meet, who handles what, and what supplies you keep on hand. Ready.gov’s Make a Plan guidance frames it around a few simple questions, and the whole thing fits on a single card you can copy for every member of the household.

The plan you carry in your head is not a plan. Phones die, cell networks jam, and a babysitter or a grandparent has no idea what you would do. Writing it down, sharing it, and running through it once or twice a year is what turns a vague intention into something a ten-year-old could follow.

Start with four questions

Ready.gov suggests building any household plan by talking through a handful of questions together. Answer these and most of the plan writes itself:

• How will we get alerts and warnings? Sign up for your county or city emergency alerts, keep a battery or hand-crank radio, and know which app or station you trust for outage updates.
• What is our shelter-in-place plan? Decide where you ride out a short outage at home, and how you stay warm, cool, and fed while you wait.
• What is our evacuation plan? Know when you would leave, where you would go, and how you would get there if a long outage makes home unsafe.
• How will we communicate? Agree on how you will reach each other and reconnect if you are split up when the power and the phones get unreliable.

The rest of this guide takes those answers and turns them into the pieces of an actual plan: contacts, meeting places, roles, the needs specific to your household, a kit, and a habit of practicing.

A communication plan

The heart of the plan is one decision: how everyone checks in when local lines are jammed. FEMA’s advice is to name a single out-of-town contact, someone far enough away that a regional outage will not knock out their service. After a disaster it is often easier to reach someone in another state than to call across the street, so everyone in the household calls or texts that one person to say they are safe, and that contact relays messages among you.

• Write down the numbers. Make a contact card for every household member with the out-of-town contact, each other’s mobile numbers, and key addresses. Keep a paper copy in each wallet and backpack, because a dead phone is a dead contact list.
• Add an ICE contact. Store an emergency contact in each phone under the name “ICE” (In Case of Emergency). First responders are trained to look for it, and it works even when the phone is locked on many devices.
• Text, don’t call. The FCC and FEMA note that during an emergency a short text often gets through when a call will not. Texts use less of the network, so they free up lines for 911 and conserve your battery. Save voice calls for vital information and keep them brief.
• Conserve battery. Dim your screen, close apps, and use one device for updates. A charged power bank in the kit keeps at least one phone alive for days.

Meeting places

If you cannot reach each other by phone, the fallback is a place, not a message. FEMA recommends agreeing on meeting points at a few different distances, so you are covered whether the issue is a single house or a whole neighborhood. Pick the spots, then make sure even the youngest household member knows them by heart.

Meeting place	Example	When you’d use it
Just outside the home	The mailbox, a neighbor’s porch, the big tree out front	A sudden problem in the house, like a fire, when you need everyone out and counted fast
In the neighborhood	A corner, a park, a familiar driveway	You cannot get back into the house but the area is safe
Outside the neighborhood	A library, a school, a community center	The whole block is affected or you are told to leave the area
Out of town	A relative’s or friend’s home in another town	A long outage or evacuation that keeps you from coming home for a while

For each spot, agree on how long you wait before moving to the next one, and how you would travel there if roads or transit are down.

Who does what

When the lights go out, a plan with assigned jobs moves faster than one where everyone waits to be told. The Red Cross suggests giving each household member a responsibility so nothing important gets forgotten in the scramble. Match the jobs to ages and abilities, and write a backup name next to each one in case that person is not home.

• Grab-the-kit person. One adult knows exactly where the emergency kit, flashlights, and power bank live and brings them to the group.
• Check-in person. Someone is responsible for texting the out-of-town contact that everyone is accounted for.
• Kids and pets. Assign who gathers the children and who leashes or crates the animals, so no one assumes someone else has it.
• Shut-off knowledge. At least two people should know how to safely turn off the water, and where the breaker panel is. Leave gas to the utility unless you smell it and are told to shut it off.
• The neighbor check. Decide who looks in on an older relative or a neighbor who uses medical equipment once your own household is safe.

Special needs: medical, kids, seniors, pets

A generic plan fails the people who need it most. Ready.gov’s advice across its older-adults, disability, and pet guidance all points the same way: list the specific needs in your household and plan for each one by name.

• Medical and mobility. Note every device that needs power and how it is backed up, keep a current list of medications and doses, and label any supplies that have to stay refrigerated. Keep prescriptions topped up and ask your pharmacist about an emergency supply. If a device is life-sustaining, your plan should name a place with power you can reach quickly.
• Kids. Teach children the out-of-town number and the meeting places, and practice a calm version of the plan so it is familiar, not frightening. Pack a comfort item, a flashlight that is theirs, and a few quiet activities for a long dark evening.
• Seniors. Plan for medicine, glasses, hearing-aid batteries, and any chargers, and arrange a daily check-in so an older relative who lives alone is never out of contact. Make sure they can operate a flashlight and a phone in the dark.
• Pets. Ready.gov says to keep several days of pet food and water in airtight containers, plus a leash, a carrier, and vaccination records. Line up a friend or neighbor who can care for or move your animals if you cannot get home, since many shelters do not take pets.

Your supply kit

The plan tells everyone what to do; the kit is what makes it possible. Ready.gov’s Build a Kit basics start with water at one gallon per person per day, a three-day supply at a minimum and two weeks if you have the room, plus non-perishable food, light, a radio, a first-aid kit, medications, and copies of key documents. Our emergency kit walkthrough covers the full list, and our guide to how much water to store breaks the math down per person and pet.

• Water and food. One gallon per person per day, plus extra for pets, and a few days of food that needs no cooking, with a manual can opener.
• Light and power. Flashlights and headlamps instead of candles, spare batteries, and a charged power bank or power station for phones and small devices.
• Information. A battery or hand-crank radio for alerts when the internet and cell service are down.
• Health and documents. A first-aid kit, a week or more of medications, and IDs, insurance, and medical records in a waterproof bag, with digital copies too.
• Comfort and specifics. Whatever your household actually needs, from baby supplies to pet food to hearing-aid batteries.

Keep the kit in one or two grab-and-go containers everyone can find, and pair it with our power outage checklist so the day-of steps are written down next to the supplies.

Do the power math for your home

If part of your plan is keeping the fridge, a few lights, a phone, or a medical device running through an outage, size the backup power to the real load instead of guessing. Start with the Power-Station Sizing calculator to add up the watts and watt-hours your essentials draw, including the higher surge watts a fridge or pump pulls at startup. Then use the Appliance Runtime calculator to estimate how many hours a given battery will carry that load. Both return ranges based on your inputs, not guarantees, so build in a buffer and check the figures against your own appliance labels.

Practice it

A plan no one has rehearsed tends to fall apart the first time it is needed. The Red Cross recommends practicing your plan at least twice a year, and the run-through usually surfaces the gaps faster than any checklist.

• Run a drill. Once or twice a year, kill the lights for an evening, find the kit in the dark, and walk the family through reaching the out-of-town contact and naming the meeting places.
• Quiz the basics. Have kids and any adult who is hard to reach repeat the out-of-town number and the first meeting place from memory.
• Refresh the kit. Rotate water and food before they expire, replace dead batteries, recharge power banks and power stations, and update medications.
• Update the plan. Whenever a phone number, a school, a job, a medication, or a household member changes, fix the cards and re-share them.

Frequently asked questions

What should a family emergency plan include?

At a minimum, a communication plan with an out-of-town contact and ICE numbers, a set of meeting places at different distances, a job for each household member, plans for any medical, child, senior, or pet needs, and a supply kit. Ready.gov frames it around how you will get alerts, shelter in place, evacuate, and reach each other. Write it on a card everyone carries, and practice it.

Why do I need an out-of-town emergency contact?

After a disaster, local phone lines are often jammed while long-distance service still works, so it can be easier to reach someone in another state than a neighbor down the street. FEMA recommends naming one out-of-town contact that every household member checks in with to say they are safe, so that person can pass messages among you if you are separated.

Should I text or call during a power outage?

Text when you can. The FCC and FEMA advise that short text messages often get through when calls fail, because they use less of the network and help keep lines open for emergency responders. Texting also conserves your phone’s battery. Save voice calls for vital information and keep them brief.

How often should we practice the plan?

The American Red Cross suggests practicing your family emergency plan at least twice a year. A short drill, finding the kit in the dark and walking through your contacts and meeting places, tends to expose the weak spots quickly. Use each practice run to refresh the kit and update any numbers or needs that have changed.

How do I plan for someone who depends on powered medical equipment?

Build the plan around that person. Note how long each device runs on battery, line up a backup power source sized to it, and identify a warm, powered place you can reach if an outage runs long. The Red Cross advises planning how and when you would evacuate when a device loses power. Ask your provider about backup options and about whether refrigerated medicines stay usable after an outage, and keep prescriptions filled ahead.

Sources

• Ready.gov – Make a Plan: https://www.ready.gov/plan
• Ready.gov – Family Emergency Communication Plan (PDF): https://www.ready.gov/sites/default/files/2021-04/family-emergency-communication-plan.pdf
• FCC – Emergency Communications Tips: https://www.fcc.gov/emergency
• Ready.gov – Build a Kit: https://www.ready.gov/kit
• Ready.gov – Older Adults: https://www.ready.gov/older-adults
• Ready.gov – People with Disabilities: https://www.ready.gov/people-disabilities
• Ready.gov – Prepare Your Pets for Disasters: https://www.ready.gov/pets
• Ready.gov – Power Outages: https://www.ready.gov/power-outages
• American Red Cross – Make a Plan: https://www.redcross.org/get-help/how-to-prepare-for-emergencies/make-a-plan.html
• American Red Cross – Power Outage Safety: https://www.redcross.org/get-help/how-to-prepare-for-emergencies/types-of-emergencies/power-outage.html