Readiness is a family affair
When a disaster or emergency happens, children are disproportionately impacted when their parents don’t have a plan.
When a disaster or emergency happens, children are disproportionately impacted when their parents don’t have an emergency plan that takes their children into considertion. Once you have a plan, teaching your children what to do is simple. Making preparations for them is essential. Here are a few tips to get you started.
- Make sure your child knows your contact information (but make sure they don’t share this with strangers).
- Make sure they know how to spell their first and last name as well as how to spell yours.
- Teach them your home address and perhaps have them memorize at least one parent’s phone number. Even if they have a cell phone, in the event the battery dies, they will need to know more than just the speed-dial number to get a hold of you.
Talk to your children about emergencies and your family emergency plan. Here are a few questions to start the conversation:
- What do you do when the smoke detectors go off in the house?
- What do you do when there is a fire in house?
- Where do we meet once we’ve escaped the house fire? Neighbor’s house? Corner of the street? A relative’s house?
- Where do we meet if the neighborhood is evacuated because of an emergency such as brush fire or a flood?
- What happens if there’s an emergency at school? Do you know where the fire exits are? Do you know where to meet and wait to be reunited with mom, dad or a family relative?
- What do you do in an emergency? Call 911?
To learn more about emergency readiness, visit readyla.org.
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