Emergency Planning For Family

emergency planning family emergency planning family

Living in California earthquakes are our big natural disasters, and after a high alert warning, I realized my family wasn’t prepared.  I did a bunch of research and talked to the kids and here are a few tips:

Emergency Kit

  • You can purchase one or make your own.  
  • At the minimum, you need 3 days supply of food and water.
  • You also want to include a first aid kit, flashlights, a crank radio.
  • If you have an infant you do need to pack things like formula, bottle, extra diapers.
  • You need to be able to get to it! A lot of people store them in their garages or even outside in a safe place.

Talk To Your Kids

  • You should talk to your kids about what to do in an emergency. I didn’t want to scare them, but they didn’t know what earthquakes were, so I wanted them to feel a little bit more ready.
  • Drop to the floor, cover your heads and get underneath something sturdy. We went through each room and figured out where we would go.
  • If there’s a big sturdy table you go underneath it.
  • If you’re in your bed you cover your head with a pillow.
  • Show the kids where their flashlights are (by their beds).
  • The kids should stay in their bed until an adult comes to them.

Meeting Spots

  • Come up with a meeting spot that’s outside the house like a front yard.
  • Also, pick a spot that’s outside your immediate neighborhood like a nearby library or school.

Misc. Checklist

  • Make sure to share all of these plans with your nanny or caregiver.
  • Scan all of your important documents and upload them to the cloud.
  • Overall, prep your house. Again, for us, it’s earthquakes so we bolted everything to the wall and put sticky tape on the pictures.

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Elle Walker is a co-founder at What's Up Moms and the mom to three kids (10, 7, 5). In her spare time, she loves testing out kids activities (often muttering, "Pinterest, you lie"), to find the best activities that minimize set-up, reduce costs, and uses stuff up around the house. Follow her behind the scenes at Instagram @whatsupelle. {{Privy:Embed campaign=591322}}