101 Planning

Thinking about the what-ifs

This rung is not a shopping trip. It is a conversation with yourself, written down, while the lights are still on.

Pick three pictures and answer them in plain words. You are at home tonight and something is wrong. You are across town and you cannot get back. Someone in the house is hurt or needs a medicine on a schedule. You do not need a clever answer. You need an answer you can find on paper when you are scared.

Scared is allowed here. Confused is the normal starting point. The point of 101 is to trade “I don’t know” for a few sentences you can read later.

A plan for where you would go

Some emergencies mean you leave. Some mean you stay. You cannot decide that well if you have never named a place.

• Right outside. A spot your household can see from the door. This is for a fire, a smell of gas, or any reason the building itself is the problem.
• Nearby, if home is not usable. A friend, a family member, or a public place you already know how to reach without a mapping app.
• Out of the area. One place farther away, and the roads you would actually drive. Write the address. Apps die with the phone battery.

Ready.gov’s plan page is the federal starting point for this kind of family plan. Use it as a checklist of questions. Write the answers in your words.

A basic go bag

A go bag is what you can carry if you leave on short notice. It is not a month of food, and it is not a costume. One bag, in one place, that you could pick up half-asleep.

• Water for the trip, not for a week. The week is rung 201.
• A little food you will actually eat, and any medicine you cannot skip.
• Copies of IDs, insurance cards, and a paper list of medicines and doses. Keep the originals wherever you already keep them; the bag gets copies.
• A little cash in small bills. Card readers fail when the power or the network fails.
• A flashlight, a whistle, and a way to charge the phone in a car.
• Paper phone numbers. At least one person who does not live in your town.
• If a baby, a pet, or a medical device is part of the household, the bag has to admit that. Formula, a leash, spare glasses, a spare hearing-aid battery.

Ready.gov calls this a basic disaster supplies kit and suggests one or two containers you can carry, such as a bin or a duffel. Start smaller than you think. A finished small bag beats a perfect list.

Safety of your home

Before you store anything, know how the house works. Walk it once and write the answers down.

• Where is the water shutoff? Where is the electrical panel? Where is the gas shutoff, if you have gas, and which tool turns it?
• Do the smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms work? A CO alarm matters later, when anyone is tempted to heat or cook in a closed room.
• Two ways out of every room people sleep in. Practice the short one.
• The outside meeting spot from the section above. Say it out loud so a child or a guest knows it too.

Home safety at 101 is “I can get people out, and I can turn utilities off if an official or a firefighter tells me to.” It is not a renovation project.

The people you surround yourself with

Gear does not come to the door. People do. Decide, now, who those people are.

• Household. Who lives here, who is in charge of the bag, who grabs the medicine, who gets the pet.
• Out of the area. One person everyone will try to reach if local calls are a mess. Ready.gov’s family plan uses this idea because the people closest to the problem are the hardest to reach.
• Nearby, on purpose. The neighbor you would actually check on, and the neighbor you would actually let help you. “Nearby” is not the same as “trusted.”
• Not on the list. People you like on a normal day and still would not hand a key, a bag, or your medicine to. Write that down too. It is easier before everyone is frightened.