Practical emergency prep for families

Get your family ready for the emergencies that actually happen.

Calm, step-by-step guides for storms, power outages, evacuations and the paperwork that matters. Pick the situation on your mind and start there.

New to this? Start here Browse guides by situation

Written by a parent who completed Montgomery County CERT training. Safety guidance comes from named public sources.

Three good first steps

Do them in any order. Each one is a small job.

Top guides

Start with what you are facing

Each group below is a good place to begin. Read one guide, do one thing, and you have made real progress.

Storms

Hurricanes, tornadoes and winter storms: what to do ahead of time, and when it is on the way.

Power outages

Staying warm, keeping food safe and getting through the night when the lights go out.

Evacuation and go-kits

A plan everyone knows, a kit that is packed, and the pets and little things people forget.

Important documents

Know what to keep, in what form, and where it lives, before you need to look for it.

Browse all emergency guides →

Free printables

Checklists and cards you can print and keep

Each one goes with a guide. Open the guide, and you can get the printable sent to your email.

Tornado Plan Card + Shelter Kit

Your safe spot, backup spot, who gets the kids and where to meet, on one card.

Winter Storm Checklist (Home and Car)

Before-winter, watch, warning and power-out lists for the house.

Pet Emergency Kit Checklist + Pet Info Sheet

The kit checklist by group, plus where your pets can go if you leave home.

Emergency Contact Cards

Fold-over wallet cards, a kids card and a fridge-size household contact sheet.

Family Medication List

Two fillable pages: a household block and room for four people.

Home Inventory Checklist

Room-by-room tick boxes for 13 rooms, plus a table for high-value items.

Keep reading

Latest from the site

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Buying Guides

Best Emergency Water Filters and Purification Tablets

A filter and a tablet do different jobs. Here is what the CDC and EPA say each one removes, plus four picks for a home emergency kit and how they compare.

10 min read

Buying Guides

Best NOAA Weather Radios for Storm Warnings

What to look for in a NOAA weather radio, using the National Weather Service's own guidance, plus three models compared on county alerts, power and phone charging.

9 min read

Gear & Supplies

Do Batteries Expire? How to Store Them for an Outage

Batteries do expire, but slowly. Here is what the makers claim for shelf life, how to store spares, and what Ready.gov and the EPA say about keeping them safe.

10 min read

When you want it all in one place

The Family Emergency Binder

If you would rather have your contacts, documents and plans in a single printable binder, we built one. Everything on this site works without it.

See the Family Emergency Binder →

Who's behind this

Hi, I'm Todd

I'm a parent who completed Montgomery County CERT training. I'm not an emergency professional, so the safety guidance here comes from named public sources. Where we live, we see tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, floods, extreme heat, and cold we're not built for. The lesson that stuck: having your information written down before you need it takes one worry off the list. I started this site to give regular families the practical, no-panic guidance I wish I'd had. No bunkers, no fear, just what to buy, store, and do.

More about the site →