According to FEMA, at their emergency preparedness website, the very first step is to Make a Plan. For a nice short catch-all checklist for this step, go to my county’s site here.
For this step in our Prep-Along, you will need your binder as we explore:
- Planning for your special considerations
- Making a Family Communications Plan
- The Rest: Getting Tech Ready, Escape Routes, Utility Shut Off, Financial Preparedness, and Safety Skills
#1 Your Special Considerations
Hopefully, you already did Step #1, Be Informed, so you should already know your local risks. If not, take a look at this page for some local information about “Days that We Needed a Plan”. For this step, click through the links on the left of this page about infants, seniors, and other special needs that you will need to remember while making your plan. If you want more information, the Red Cross site addresses some of the same concerns in the links at the bottom of this page.
#2 Making a Family Communications Plan
You have several options for this step.
- There are several recommendedworksheets on the FEMA site
- The Red Cross worksheets are less cartoony, but also less thorough
- Check your state and county websites for worksheets, like mine has here and here.
Go ahead and complete the ones you like; put them in your binder.
#3 The Rest of the Plan
- Get Tech Ready: Read through this.
- Escape Routes: If you used the FEMA worksheets, this will already be done.
- Utility Shut Off: Find out how yours work. If it’s complicated, put instructions in your binder.
- Financial Preparedness: Read this page and print out and make copies of what you need.
- Safety Skills: If no one in your family is First Aid/CPR trained, make a plan to sign someone up for classes.
That’s a LOT, but next week, we get to the fun part…SHOPPING and GIVEAWAYS! We’ll be doing that for most of the rest of the Prep-Along.
If you can find out this information, write it on the applicable pages for each disaster in your notebook.
Share what you found!
Come back here and post something in the comments that you didn’t know before. On Friday, our usual linky will be shots of everyone’s progress. Some blogs know how to let people (without blogs) put in their own photos at the end of the post. Anyone know how to do that?
Just a note for CPR classes: I had done some research on this in my area about a year ago. I found that classes through the Red Cross were a bit pricey. However, I discovered that our local fire department was offering basic training to citizens for a nominal (less than $10) fee per person. It was an incredible deal, so look into that if you want to learn or get a refresher course on CPR.
i printed a bunch of the disaster and what to do papers to put in my binder which i finally got today(yay 99 cent store). I am going to hole punch them and put them in the binder and then do this next step. i kinda did the steps backwards since i couldnt get to the store until this week. i have cpr/first aid training because I am a leader for Girl Scouts, and I am also the 1st aider. for us in San Diego we are offered a 4+ hr class for about $45 and its good for 2 years. its not too pricey, but the above option if available would totally be worth it.
I love the idea of having all your important papers in one place. But, if you live in an area where disaster comes without a 15 minute warning, I suggest you also make copies of all of these things and store them with a trusted friend or family member who does not live in your disaster zone. We had a house fire while we were away from home. By the time I could get back into what was left of my house, my binder would have been a soggy moldy mess. We live in earthquake/wild fire country. I am planning on building a binder, but I will also scan the documents and put them on a thumb drive and have my sister in tornado alley store it for me with her stuff in her shelter.
Thanks for all of this information!
I came across your blog site…and just now realized I’m reading your book, Little House in the Suburbs: Backyard farming and home skills for self sufficient living. I’m learning so much from it and other books. I’m just now beginning to learn the other stuff, but have been gardening for a year or two now. I love to plant my garden and see the things grow, now I need to learn how to preserve it all. I have a canning class tomorrow. By the way, you all make it sound so fun. Thanks for a great book.
Sarah P–How cool, thanks for letting us know. I predict the canning class will be a lot of fun. I applaud you for taking it. It will give you a lot of confidence. Thanks for reading our book and for the kind words, it means a lot!