Last Updated November 14, 2023
What is an Emergency Plan?
An Emergency Plan is a central document that household members use to outline their actions in response to an emergency or natural disaster. By creating and referencing this document, each member of your family will know what to do, where to go, or who to contact in an emergency.
The key features of LawDepot’s Emergency Plan include:
- Details about the members of your household (e.g., contact numbers, health insurance, and medications)
- Numbers of emergency contact people and services (e.g., local fire station, nearest hospital, or poison control)
- Processes for evacuation (e.g., escape routes, essential items, and safe places)
- Guidelines for sheltering at home (e.g., details about mechanical systems and safety equipment)
- Checklists for essential items
An Emergency Plan is also known as a/an:
- Emergency action plan
- Emergency preparedness plan
- Disaster response plan
- Safety plan
Why should I make an Emergency Plan?
Although the general consequences of disasters can be similar, the region in which you live may be more susceptible to certain risk factors than others. For example, coastal states are prone to suffer from hurricanes and floods, while other regions may be at risk of industrial or transportation accidents.
Likewise, individual members of your family may have health conditions or disabilities that will affect how your household responds to an emergency. For instance, if you need to evacuate and a member of your family is physically disabled, you’ll need to plan an escape route that everyone can safely navigate.
As such, it’s important to assess the risks that you face at home and make a personalized Emergency Plan to protect your loved ones from harm. This proactivity not only speeds up your reaction to an emergency but also ensures that you have the necessities to get through a tough situation.
How do you write an Emergency Plan?
Your family Emergency Plan should include personalized details about your family members, house, and community. It should also clearly outline different emergency responses, such as evacuating, sheltering at home, and preparing essential items.
Planning for evacuations
Our template prompts you to include a home escape route, which is a floor plan of your home that shows possible ways to escape from every room. You can draw this floor plan by hand or on the computer.
If needed, prepare to escape from windows with ladders or ropes and add instructions for doing so. Consider how evacuation routines may differ depending on the emergency, such as a fire, flood, blocked exit, or separation of family members. Account for the physical needs of each family member and plan escape routes that everyone can navigate safely.
After you evacuate your home, meet your family members in a safe location. Our questionnaire asks you for meeting areas both outside your home and outside your community. Some municipalities may designate storm shelters when needed, but you can also choose your own meeting points.
Planning for sheltering at home
Severe weather, industrial accidents, or public health emergencies may call for people to shelter in place (i.e., stay indoors) until the danger recedes.
Again, it’s important to assess all potential risks to your community in particular and plan accordingly. LawDepot’s Emergency Plan template prompts you to consider a safe indoor location, but where you go inside your house to wait out the danger will vary depending on the circumstances.
For instance, if there is a tornado or earthquake, go to your basement or seek shelter under a table. Add instructions for closing doors and windows to cut off ventilation if there is a nuclear or chemical accident. Learn how to insulate and heat your home safely in case of a winter power outage.
Preparing essential items
In addition to your Emergency Plan, it’s also important to prepare essential items and documents (such as a first aid kit, an emergency items kit, and photocopies of IDs, insurance policies, etc.). Our template includes checklists that will guide you through these extra preparation tasks.
When should I use my Emergency Plan?
Local authorities will notify you if an emergency requires you to evacuate or shelter at home. This could be in response to natural disasters or human-caused hazards such as fires, floods, extended power outages, civil unrest, and more. In emergency situations, take these steps:
- Follow your Emergency Plan
- Grab your emergency kits
- Ensure your own safety before helping others
- Listen for more information from local officials
How else can my family prepare for a disaster?
Taking steps to prepare your family and home ahead of a disaster will improve your chances of success when it’s time to act.
LawDepot’s Emergency Plan template will prompt you to consider the mechanical systems in your home. You should know the locations of important systems, such as electrical panels and gas valves, and how to turn them off when necessary.
You can also hazard-proof your home for environmental risks in your area. For instance, remove chemical products and irreplaceable belongings from the basement in case of a flood. If you’re in a place that’s prone to earthquakes or tornados, be sure to secure any objects that could fall and cause damage. Check your roof, chimney, and drainage regularly. Keeping your house in good repair generally helps avoid further problems later.
It’s important to involve the whole family in preparing for disaster. Conduct rehearsals for different evacuation scenarios (such as how to escape the house during a fire) and assign family members specific duties (such as gathering pets, performing first aid, or purifying water).
Be sure to review your plan and maintain your emergency kits regularly, at least every six months to a year.
What do I do after a disaster?
Once you’ve executed your Emergency Plan and ensured the safety of your household, you can:
- Take steps to help any other injured people nearby.
- Listen to the media to keep tabs on the on-going response effort.
- Reunite with your extended family or other people who are important to you.
- When it’s safe, check your home for other hazards and restore the power if needed.
Major disasters often leave people feeling helpless, worried, angry, or apathetic. However, it’s important to take care of your mental and physical well-being during these times. If you or your family experience severe emotional reactions or physical symptoms from the disaster, you may want to seek help from your family doctor, counselor, or another helpful community agency.
