An Emergency Plan outlines your household’s actions in response to a local emergency or natural disaster. With a clear plan, each member of your family speeds up their reaction to an immediate threat such as a natural disaster (like a flood, fire, or extreme weather) or human-caused hazard (such as a chemical spill or transportation accident).

Emergency situations may call for you to evacuate your area or take shelter at home. An Emergency Plan is a valuable tool for assessing the potential risks in your environment and planning your response to them ahead of time.

The essential components of LawDepot’s Emergency Plan template include:

• General information about your household (medical histories and insurance policies)
• Contact details for key people and services
• Processes and guidelines for evacuation and sheltering at home
• Emergency preparedness checklists (documents, first aid, and essential items)

An Emergency Plan is also known as an:

• Emergency response plan
• Emergency action plan
• Emergency and disaster management plan

Creating an Emergency Plan ensures that you and your loved ones have the knowledge and the necessities to get through tough situations.

Depending on where you live, you may be more susceptible to certain risk factors than others. Some regions may be at a higher risk for extreme cold and extended power outages, while others may be prone to wildfires or flooding. So, it’s important to assess potential threats and make a personalized Emergency Plan to protect yourself and your loved ones from harm.

Local authorities may or may not have resources available to aid the public during certain emergency responses (like having enough firefighters to deal with a rapidly spreading wildfire). Knowing the foreseeable threats your community faces and how it can respond to them will help you determine your personal responsibilities during a crisis.

You should also consider any health conditions or disabilities that will affect how individual family members can respond to an emergency. For example, if you need to evacuate and a member of your family is living with a physical disability, you’ll need to plan a route that everyone can safely navigate.

LawDepot’s Emergency Plan template prompts you to prepare a home escape route and attach it to your plan.

Customize an escape route for various evacuation scenarios, such as blocked exits, heavy smoke, or fire in the house. Sketch the layout of your home and plan for at least one or two exit options for every room in your house. If needed, prepare for exiting through windows with ladders or ropes.

Practice your evacuation plan with your family at least once every six months to a year. You may not have time to refer to your maps during an emergency, so it’s critical to learn and rehearse your escape routes ahead of time.

Our questionnaire will also prompt you to list two locations for meeting up with family members after an evacuation:

• Outside your home: Choose a safe location that is outside your home but not directly beside it, like the end of your driveway. You could also include city-designated storm shelter sites (such as community centres or churches) that are within walking distance. However, if you’re identifying two safe spots outside your home, be sure your family knows which meeting place is appropriate for which type of emergency.
• Outside your city: Choose an out-of-town location to meet during a city evacuation. Refer to your municipality’s evacuation plans to confirm what safety measures may be in place during certain emergencies (roadblocks, for instance, may hinder your family from reaching their planned muster point). If needed, include instructions for different modes of transportation (like if you don’t have a car or run out of gas).

In addition to your Emergency Plan, it’s important to prepare essential items and documents such as a first aid kit, an emergency kit, and photocopies of IDs and insurance policies. Our template’s checklists are thorough and will guide you through these emergency preparation tasks.

When assembling emergency kits, use backpacks or containers that are easy to grab and go. Each kit should include essential items to help you get through at least 72 hours without access to services. You can create a large family kit, but individual kits are easier to transport and helpful if family members get separated.

Our emergency kit checklist reminds you to pack essentials such as:

• Food and water
• Medical items
• Safety items and basic equipment
• Clothing and toiletries
• Cash and documents

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.

Our questionnaire will also guide you through an evaluation of your home’s mechanical systems. Knowing where valves and panels are, how to access them, and when to turn them on or off is important during emergencies. Generally, hazard proofing and keeping your house systems in good repair helps avoid further problems later.

There are several steps you can take to prepare your family for different emergencies:

• Discuss your Emergency Plan in-depth with each family member.
• Conduct rehearsals for different evacuation scenarios.
• Assign family members specific duties (e.g., gathering pets, performing first aid, or purifying water).
• Review your plan and emergency kits every six months or once a year.