Designate an Out Of State Emergency Contact

Cantate urged us to practice disaster drills and have an emergency plan. Her experience in Tokyo is invaluable in showing us how important this REALLY is. The schools have their own emergency plan and they drill the teachers and students on a regular basis. But it's just as important to have an emergency plan in place for home, and make sure everyone in the family knows what to do for any emergency.

For example, our plans in case of a house fire was for the children to stay in their bedroom (1st floor) and escape out of the window (reassuring them that it was OKAY to knock the screen out or cut it). They were then to run to the neighbors and call for help.

We went through a spell where our city had a huge rash of home invasions, very scary and all over the news. It frightened the kids and they asked what we would do if it happened to us. We decided we'd follow our fire plan because it was important for them to get out of the house - ASAP.

But my biggest tip, and the main reason for this is something most people don't think about. When we first moved to Oklahoma, I was TERRIFIED of the possibility of a tornado! But even more frightening was the thought of what if one hit while the kids were at school, or I was not home? What if it wasn't possible to reach a neighbor in an emergency because the entire neighborhood was involved?

When we had massive, wide-spread power outages, how would you even get hold of someone across town to find out if your loved ones were safe? When the kids got older, there was the worry that something like a tornado would happen while they were out with their friends and we couldn't find each other.

Ever since my kids were small, we have designated my mother, who lives in another state, as the family emergency contact (after discussing it with my mom so she'd know what was going on). All school forms had her name and phone number in the emergency contact section, as did any of the wallet emergency cards we all carried. I even wrote it in the kids backpacks. I made sure that the kids memorized Grandma's phone number and knew how to dial it. We all knew that if there was ever an emergency where we were separated and couldn't get in touch with each other, we were to call grandma and give her the necessary information for the others to find us.

Thankfully we have never had to put this to use, but we are prepared if we are ever in that situation. These plans were put into place before cell phones and the internet made it so easy to stay in touch, but they are equally important today as we don't know if we will have cell phone or internet service in the event of a natural disaster.

By Judy = Oklahoma from OK