Start with people, not hazards
List everyone the plan must serve: people at home, children elsewhere during the day, relatives you support, neighbours who may need help, assistance animals and pets. Ask what each person needs to receive information, travel, communicate and stay medically safe.
Your one-page plan
- Names and mobile numbers
- Out-of-area contact
- Nearby meeting place
- Meeting place outside the neighbourhood
- School, care and workplace arrangements
- Transport and accessible transport options
- Medicine, equipment and power dependencies
- Pet and assistance-animal arrangements
- Two possible evacuation routes
- Trusted local alert channels
Communication plan
Mobile networks may be congested. Agree on a contact outside the affected area who can relay messages. Text can sometimes work when calls do not. Keep the plan on paper as well as on phones.
- Use plain names, full addresses and two phone numbers where possible.
- Record how each person prefers or needs to communicate.
- Agree on a simple message format: safe location, immediate need, next contact time.
- Do not publish your private plan publicly.
Plan to stay and plan to leave
Different emergencies require opposite actions. Know how you would shelter safely at home and how you would leave quickly. Official instructions always take priority.
Practise and review
Walk through the plan twice a year and after a move, new medicine, new school, change in mobility or major local incident. Practice should reduce anxiety, not simulate trauma.
- Ask everyone to explain the plan in their own words.
- Travel one evacuation route in ordinary conditions.
- Test alert settings, power banks, radios and accessibility equipment.
- Update paper copies and remove old versions.