• The most important area to prepare for a disaster is to create your Family Emergency Plans. There should be two plans. First plan and the easiest to create is a shelter in place plan. The second plan is to create a potential evacuation plan.
• Beyond creating your two emergency plans, we recommend that each family should create a solid communications plan, especially if you have separated family members. Can you imagine a pending or progressing disaster and you can’t reach one or more of your family members to make sure they are safe or advise them where to go for safety? We have a resource on our website that summarizes what a family should do to shelter in place. Access the webpage here: https://family-preparedness.com/hide-shelter-in-place/. For a more in depth resource check out our Shelter in Place Tiny Course located here: https://family-preparedness.com/tiny-courses-main-menu/. If you need help creating a family communication plan, check out our Basic Communication Plan Tiny Course located here: https://family-preparedness.com/tiny-courses-main-menu/.
• The second most important area to prepare for is any disaster that forces you (or encourages you) to stay safely in your home for up to three days or 72 hours. Although a disaster may not last a full 72 hours, having the very basics of non-perishable food and one gallon of water per person per day for drinking and sanitation is essential for enduring any disaster in your home, no matter how long the disaster lasts.
• Another area to prepare is to assemble essential or convenience supplies. Actually, if you follow our recommendations with our Shelter in Place Tiny Course, most of these supplies will already be available for your use and convenience. These supplies include such items as multiple flashlights, extra batteries, a NOAA weather radio, a first aid kit, a whistle, a manual can opener and a 3-day supply of medications.
• A critical area that most people forget about is having important documents and cash available (for an evacuation emergency) and also if you were to lose your home or domicile due to a tornado, flood, or one of 50 other disaster types. This requires a family to safeguard their important documents by either having them digitally available ‘in the cloud’ (so they can be downloaded later), or by having copies of those important documents in a fire-proof and water-proof document container that you can ‘grab-and-go’. Can you imagine having to prove you own your home and other assets (vehicles, stocks and bonds, bank accounts, etc.) if you lost those proof of assets. The image below shows one of our recommendations – the DocFortress from Stealth Angel Survival. Its waterproof, fireproof, portable and inexpensive. It can protect your most important documents, cash, jewelry, cash, ID cards and passports.

Lastly is a plan for specific needs. This area may not apply to everyone, but if you have pets, children, elderly family members or other people living with you, their safety may depend upon including provisions for them in your shelter-in-place and evacuation plans. This specific needs option should include having extra pet food, medical equipment and special supplies to accommodate these specific needs people and pets.