People and roles

Write the jobs down

Ready.gov’s plan template is mostly names and places, because gear without a role fails in the first ten minutes. In this house, who takes the go-bag? Who gets the youngest child? Who leashes the dog? Who knows the water shutoff? Who is the out-of-area voice if local phones jam? If the usual person is at work, who is the second?

People outside the household matter as much. An elder who lives alone, a neighbor on oxygen, a friend with a truck. Agree on a check-in before a heat wave, not during one. You are not building a squad. You are making sure nobody is invisible.

• Share the plan with the adults. Tell children the meeting spot in calm words.
• Ask schools, childcare, and workplaces how they release people in an evacuation.
• Practice one piece a year: a fire drill to the mailbox, a weekend bag check, a phone-tree text.
• Include roommates and frequent guests. A plan that ignores who is actually in the house is fiction.

Trust is specific

Give a spare key, a medical note, or a pet instruction only to a person you would trust with them on a normal Thursday. Write those names on the household card, which stays on this device until you print it. Do not put alarm codes or hiding spots on that card. The card is for reuniting, not for a map of the house.