Your family’s storm plan
Twenty minutes at the kitchen table: who to text, where to meet, who does what. It stays on this device. Print a copy for the fridge and a card for every wallet.
Fill it in together
0 of 5 parts filledWho lives here
Names and cell numbers. Add anything a helper would need to know, like a medicine schedule or a hearing aid.
Who we text
Pick one person out of the area. After a big storm, a text to someone far away often gets through when local calls don’t, and everyone checks in with the same person.
Save the out-of-area contact as “ICE” (in case of emergency) in every phone. Already worth having: 911 for emergencies, SMUD 1-888-456-7683 for outages, PG&E 1-800-743-5000 if you smell gas.
Where we meet
Three places, from near to far. Walk to the first one together this week so the kids know it.
A fire, a gas leak, a tree on the house
You can’t get home, or the street is flooded
You have to evacuate
Who does what
Give each job one name, so nobody assumes someone else has it. Tap a name.
Print it and practice
The calendar file is made on this device. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.
Saved on this device only. Brace For It never sees names, numbers or places.
- What it is
- A fill-in plan for your household: who to text, where to meet and who does what, plus a 20-minute meeting guide.
- Why it’s here
- Phones die and lines jam in big storms. A plan everyone agreed on beats a plan in one person’s head.
- What it helps with
- Finding each other after an outage, an evacuation or an early school closure.
- How to use it
- Sit down together, fill in the five parts, print the cards, then pick a date to practice.
Sign up for Sacramento Alert (county evacuation orders) from the 95821 local help page. Sacramento County suggests giving your child’s school a copy of your contact information and teaching kids how and when to call 911. Ask the school how it reunites families after an early closure.
- Sacramento Ready: Communication plan (out-of-town contact, contact cards, two meeting places)
- FEMA: Family Emergency Communication Plan (text is best, ICE contact, meeting places, practice)
- National Weather Service: Make a communication plan (“Text, don’t talk”, practice drill)
- Ready.gov: Make a Plan