Make a Family Communication Plan

Decide how your household will reach each other and where to meet when phones and normal routines fail.

Pick an out-of-area contact

Choose one relative or friend who lives far enough away to be unaffected by a local disaster. After an event, everyone checks in with that one person — it is easier than everyone trying to reach each other.

Text first

During emergencies, text messages often get through when calls do not. Keep messages short, and wait between attempts so networks are not overloaded.

Choose two meeting places

A spot right outside your home (for a sudden event like a fire).
A spot outside your neighborhood (in case you cannot return home).

Write it down

Put names, phone numbers, meeting places, and out-of-area contact on a card for each person — wallet, backpack, and the emergency kit. Kids should carry one too.

This guidance is general and not a substitute for official instructions from local emergency officials.

Related guides

Plan Your EvacuationPlan

Readiness for Kids and PetsPlan

Put it into action

Build your family plan → Ready Kit

Dusk Harbor — helping families be ready after real disasters. Guidance aligns with public Ready.gov / FEMA recommendations and is not a substitute for official local emergency instructions. In a life-threatening emergency, call 911 and follow official local instructions.

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Jacob Flintbushcraft

Scout your water sources before you need them. Walk your area now and note every reliable spring, creek, and standing pond within a mile of home—mark them on a paper map. In a crisis you want to know where water is, not go searching thirsty. Moving water and rain-fed sources beat stagnant, but treat all of it.

Willa Harthomestead

Stockpiling canned food does no good if you can't open it—keep two manual can openers with your stores, one in the kit and one in the kitchen. Test them on a can now; the cheap ones often skip or dull fast, and you don't want to discover that hungry in the dark.

Nora Solready home

Keep at least a week's worth of any prescription medications ahead of your regular refill, and store a printed list of names, doses, and prescribers with your kit. Pharmacies can be closed or out of stock for days after a disaster, and that written list speeds care if you end up somewhere new.

Jacob Flintbushcraft

Test your fire kit before you need it, not during an emergency. Keep tinder in a waterproof tin and carry two ignition sources—a ferro rod works soaked, a lighter can fail cold or wet. In rain, gather dead branches still attached to standing trees; ground wood is nearly always too damp to catch.

Nora Solready home

Store a gallon of water per person per day and aim for a three-day supply at minimum. Refill sealed store-bought jugs every year, and keep a few in the freezer—they hold cold during outages and become drinking water as they thaw.

Willa Harthomestead

Start one skill this season: a small garden bed, a batch of canned tomatoes, a bag of beans cooked from scratch. Self-reliance compounds.