Make A Plan
Create your family's own emergency plan.
Being prepared can be crucial in the event of an accident, illness, or other serious situation. Additionally, your family may not be together if such a situation arises. Decide how you will contact each other and how and where you will meet if you are separated or come from different locations. Establish gathering places for the family that everyone knows and are easy to find.
It starts with a simple question: ’What if…?’
Understand the risks that exist. Home fires, public transportation accidents, snowstorms, terrorist attacks, or similar violent crimes, etc. During business or vacation trips, other risk factors may need to be considered, such as earthquakes.
’How will I find out if something happens?’ ’What should I do?’ ’What if something happens and I’m not with my family?’ ’Will I be able to reach them?’ ’How do I know they are safe?’ ’How can I let them know I’m okay?’ ’Where and how will we meet?’
Planning ahead helps ensure that all members of your household, including children, know what to do, how to reach each other, and where to meet in the event of an emergency. The plan starts with five simple steps.
1: GATHER INFORMATION
Understand how to obtain information about what is happening from school, workplace, authorities, neighbors, etc. Establish a document, including a hard copy, with contact information for your family and other important individuals/services, such as hospitals and clinics, doctors, schools, neighbors, NJSC, and the congregation's crisis information.
2. PLAN
Go through the different scenarios that exist and are relevant. Plan together what to do and how. For example, if there is a fire in the home, what should we do and how? If we are not together, where do we meet? Where do we meet if something happens when we are not at home and we cannot reach each other? Create a common communication group for the family. Also, have a common contact person who does not live in the same city/area, as it can sometimes be easier to contact this person.
3. SHARE
Ensure that everyone in the household with mobile phones is registered to receive information from school, workplace, and authorities. Remember to register your new phone numbers if you change them. For children without mobile phones, make sure they know to follow the instructions of the adult they are with, such as a teacher or principal. Add contact information for ICE, In Case Of An Emergency, in everyone's phones. Make sure everyone has a copy of contact information in their backpack, purse, or wallet. If you complete your family communication plan online, you can print it out in wallet size. You should also post a copy in a central location in the home, such as on the refrigerator or family bulletin board.
4. PRACTICE
Have a family meeting to review, go through, and practice your plan together. Discuss, for example, what information you should text so that the others know that you are okay and where you are? Have short messages like "I'm okay. At the library." After practicing, discuss how it went. What worked well? What can be improved? Have you missed anything?
5. UPDATE
Review, update, and practice your plan at least once a year. What information needs to be updated, if any? If you make updates, remember to print out new copies of the plan for everyone.
TEXTING IS BEST
If you’re using a mobile phone, a text message can succeed in delivery when a phone call can’t get through. This is because a text message requires much less bandwidth than a phone call. Text messages can also be queued up and sent automatically as soon as the connection/capacity becomes available.
