Get Ready for Extreme Weather: Week 10
Create a Meeting Place Cascade
In case of emergency – whether at the household level or the community level – it’s important to know where you will meet up or check-in with family and friends if you are separated.
Depending upon the nature of the emergency, you may be able to meet close to home or you may need to meet further away – maybe even out of state.
Create a Meetup Plan Now, Before It’s Needed
- Home: Where should your kids go if they come home and can’t get in (especially important if it’s cold)? Is there a neighbor who is usually home who could take them in. Give that neighbor your phone number.
- Nearby but outside your house, if you need to evacuate due to fire or gas leak? The front boulevard? The end of the block under the street light?
- Nearby neighborhood if your block or area of the neighborhood is closed off due to gas leak or tornado damage? Think of a place on a bus line in a nearby neighborhood. A local coffee shop or restaurant? Outside the police station? At a friend’s house?
- Metro Area: Where will you meet if your part of the city is being evacuated because of a train derailment with a toxic gas leak? Do you have family that lives in a nearby suburb you can reach by car or bus?
- Outstate or another state: Where will you meet in a catastrophic situation in which you may need to leave the state? Are there family members who can take you in for a few days, or weeks? Ask them to be part of your emergency plan.
Once you have identified locations, be sure to add this information to your Wallet Card. Give one to everyone in your family and to people who are part of your meet-up plan. Put a copy of the plan in your car glove compartment, in your bike bag, near your home phone, on your cellphone, and at your workplace.
Once you’ve identified your meeting places
- Create a communications tree: Pick a person who will be the hub for your communications plan. Call or text them to say you are okay, your location, and that you are on your way to one of the agreed-upon meeting places.
- Set up your cell phone:
- Travel: How will you travel to get to the agreed-upon location? Do your kids know where it is and how to get there?
- Money: Everyone should have enough cash in their bag, backpack, or wallet to pay for a Lyft, taxi, or bus ride to this location.
- Call-In: In a disaster situation, you can register yourself as “safe and well” at the Red Cross Safe and Well Website
NOW PRACTICE! It’s especially important if you have kids, that you practice your reunification plan so they know what to do.
