Create a Family Emergency Plan
A few months ago I was asked to do a Sharing Station Booth at BYU Women’s Conference. My topic: Creating a Family Emergency Plan. We were Booth #17.
I asked two fabulous and willing friends to assist. Thanks Sara & Wendy! We spent 100+ hours planning, researching, and gathering emergency supplies to share ideas with others. The best part was that we were able to greater prepare our families for disasters, etc. BONUS!
Our favorite projects were the Family Emergency Plan Binder which included the Grab-N-Go Lists (think… if we had 5 minutes to evacuate our home, what would we take? 15 min? 1 hr?) I also love the Family Home Evening Resources which help educate children. “If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear.” D&C 38:30
A Sample of a page from the binder handouts to show what is included. Of course, only the cover sheets are provided. You need to supply the birth certificates and personal information.
12×36 Banner to hang in garage by Emergency Supplies.
Yay! My Family is more prepared.
Want to create your own family emergency plan binder?
You can find all of these printables on BYU Women’s Conference 2013 – Sharing Stations site. (sidenote: Handout #10 was meant to be included as a word doc so you can edit the lists. For some reason Women’s Conference did it as a pdf. Download editable Handout 10 RIGHT HERE PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS ONLY HANDOUT 10 AND NOT ALL 11. THANKS!)
A Few Ideas:
– Make a binder to give as a wedding present … get those young couples started in the right direction.
– A family emergency binder makes a great Christmas Present for children or grandchildren.
– Church group activity. Get the women together for a Super Saturday Activity to create binders. They are inexpensive and easy to do. All you need is a 1″ or 1 1/2″ binder, page protectors, dividers, the free printables including binder cover. We estimate it to cost about $6 depending on the deal you get on the binder & protectors.
NOW – Go Forth and Prepare NOW. Your Family Deserves a Plan! Baby Steps… You can do it.
Thanks so much for sharing…I have this on my list to finish, but it just became a whole lot more manageable and cuter!
Thanks Heather! I am excited to check all this stuff.
Here’s another great resource, particularly if you live in an area with forest fires –
http://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/fm_files/attachments/plan_and_prepare/frk/fire-ready-kit-complete.pdf
It’s the Country Fire Authority Fire Ready kit for the state of Victoria, in Australia. It has a lot of wonderful checklists on how to get your home ready for fire season, as well as important advice on what you need to do if you decide to stay or if you decide to evacuate.
We live in Victoria, and just before Easter, our very small town had a bush fire – in all 16 homes were lost, and the fire came to within 500 metres of our own home. If the wind had been blowing the other direction we would’ve lost everything. It’s important not only to have a Plan A but also a Plan B, C, and D, in case you can’t follow Plan A. For instance, our Plan A is to leave. But what if? We live on a dirt road that is not a through road – what if that road is closed? Our Plan B is to cut the fence into the farmer’s paddock and get to the road that way. But what if? What if the fire is coming from that direction too? Plan C is to shelter with a neighbour whose property is very well defended. But what if? What if they’re not home? Plan D becomes to shelter in place under wet woolen blankets against a brick wall in the bathroom (that room was chosen because it has a brick wall – which is less likely to burn; fewer windows – which are less likely to let in smoke; easy access to water – remember that your water and electricity probably won’t be working in a fire, but at a pinch you can always access the water in the cistern of the toilet.)
It’s the same with any natural disaster that might affect you – don’t assume you can always rely on Plan A. Think through different scenarios and come up with alternative plans, too.
Hi –
I was going to use the “Contact Us” to tell you this, but the “Pin It” logo covers the code, making it impossible to fill it in.
I just wanted to let you know that, thanks to your motivation, I finally did this. Because we live in a bushfire prone area, there is a very real risk that we will lose our home. Earlier this year 16 homes in our small community were lost. I’ve been meaning to do something like this for ages; but didn’t really know where to start.
Now I’ve created two emergency binders (one for home; one kept in a secure location away from home, because we might not be home when disaster strikes). I even contacted our bank and insurance company and asked them directly what we’d need if we lost our home, and included that in the binder. I also created three emergency backpacks. These aren’t complete 72 hour kits because I really can’t imagine a situation where we wouldn’t be able to find a store; but they have some food, a change of undies and socks, some toiletries, a flashlight, a whistle for everyone, and a few other items. I also included things like a card game, pen and paper, etc. One backpack lives at home, and one lives in the back of each car.
What I am most proud of is my effort to back up all of our scrapbooks, albums, etc. I still need to get a couple more thumb drives for additional back-up, but so far I have put a copy of these on my laptops, on my work computer, on an external hard drive, on one thumb drive, and on cloud storage. Eventually I would like to have a thumb drive in each backpack; the external hard drive will remain with the emergency binder which is kept in a secure location away from home. Now, if we lose our home, at least we will be able to retrieve our precious photos and other documents such as family history records.
In a couple of months bush fire season will start again. This year for the first time I will face it knowing that if we lose our home, we will still have our photos and other documents. This feels really very good.
Thank you for your motivation.
Hi! Thank you! You did a beautiful job!
Is there a way to convert the file so we can put our family name on the binder cover (like in the photo)?
Thanks.
I visit the Women’s Conference sharing stations for inspiration for Relief Society meetings and hit the jackpot when I came across your sharing station. Thank you for your work, research, and providing the free printables for the emergency binder. We did this (copied 25 ‘binders’) along with some disaster drills (& other things). I believe it will be remembered as one of our best. So many said ‘thank you – I needed this’. This will spread and be a blessing to many. Thank you.
I am preparing this for a RS Activity and was wondering if I could get an editable copy of the cover sheet, or to know what font you used? Thank You!
Search pinterest for complete list of Grab & Go binder; also seach under Vital Records binder. You can copy the cover as a jpg & edit it in picasa, photoshop or other online programs like iPiccy. Good luck ladies!
Thank you for this! I think being prepared not scared is very important. Love your banner. I think it is beautiful even though I don’t have a garage to hang it in.
I’ve been wanting to make an Emergency Binder for my family for a while, but I wasn’t sure where to start. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this and making it a free printable! I will get started on my families binder now and mark if off the to do list!
Just wanted you to know that I love your idea so much that I tweeted about it. Hope you don’t mind I linked your site in the twitter post.
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Hello! Thanks for making this information available. I already printed it out and am going to start putting it all together soon! Something everyone should have in place. http://www.chamuelproducts.com
I am making one of these for my daughter and husband for their 1st wedding anniversary (paper).
Thank you for putting all the work in for this! I am excited to have it all in place now!
Thank you so very much! I was just called as the Ward emergency specialist and these documents including the FHE hand-outs are amazing- I thought I should tell you that those hours you ladies invested are blessing many many lives (especially mine since I don’t have to do all this work or pay for other people’s downloads) THANK YOU!
Thank You! This is awesome 🙂 Question?? I live in an area that a disaster will likely involve an earthquake, do you think the garage is the best place to store our kits???
I can’t download or print this information, I keep getting an error message.
Thank you so much for sharing this information and making it available free, that is selfless of you. I just downloaded it all but I didn’t see the four teal covers shown above or were those just for decoration at your booth? The ones that say 72 hour kit, grab and go and car kits and is the information on those in the downloads as well? Thanks!
Informative article , For what it’s worth , others are requiring a a form , my friend discovered a fillable document here
http://goo.gl/0Mvtxz.Thank you so much for all the work you put into these binders, I am on an emergency preparedness committee for our ward and we made 350 copies to hand out to members of our ward as we continue to encourage them to begin to plan and prepare for emergencies that may lie ahead in each of our lives.
I am having difficulty in downloading the Family Emergency Plan. It is not listed in the Sharing Stations for 2013 Women’s Conference. Is it still available? It will not let me download from this site either.
Thanks,
Peggy Tolman
Hello! Recently found this but cannot located the download on the BYU site. Any help??
Hi Heather,
This is so so wonderful, but I too cannot locate the printables on the BYU Women’s Conference site. I don’t think it is there any more.
Could you possibly email me those files, if you still have them? We just put together 72 hours packs tonight, but I really need a binder to see what else I need to gather and help it be all organized. Thanks so so much!!!
Hi Heather,
This is just so wonderful, but I too cannot locate the printables on the BYU Women’s Conference site. I don’t think it is there any more. Would you be willing to email me those files if you still have them?
I would be so grateful! We just put together 72 hour kits, but I need to see what we lack and organize everything in a binder. Thanks so so much!
Thank you for your work on this. It will work great for us. For those looking for your pages, they are found in 2013 under this name… Power & Peace in Preparedness
Thank you for the work on this and your other quiet books! They are so helpful for those of us who are not tech savvy and creative. I located the printables thanks to Penny, but I would love the file to print the cover sheets you created above for the 4 sections, and the binder cover to add the family name and print full 8 1/2×11 with the side binder insert separate. Thanks a bunch!
Is there an update link to print these off?
For those looking for these printables, I was finally able to track them down and thought I would save someone else the time trying to find them.
https://womensconference.byu.edu/sharing-stations/power-peace-preparedness
Stay Safe!