It’s very common to have a survival stash at home, for your kids to do drills at school, or for you to have an EDC survival kit or bug out bag stashed in your car, but do you and your family have a contingency plan for when disaster strikes your area?
If there is ever a large-scale terrorist attack, sudden act of war, natural disaster, or sudden outbreak of disease (OK, fine, zombies. It’s cliche but a good example), you and your family might be separated from one another and the prep stash you’ve been carefully building in the basement.
What happens if there’s a major emergency and no one is home? Well, you need a plan. Sit down with your family and put together a plan for what each member will do if disaster strikes when everyone is at work and school. Here are some things you could include in that plan:
1. Meeting place
Based on the potential locations everyone will be if disaster strikes, try to plan on a central meeting place where your family can convene. If you have 
small children, assign one member of the family to retrieve them or maybe have everyone meet at the little one’s school or daycare center. If you have parents who stay at home with children, make sure it’s clear that the other members of the family will make their way home while the homebound remain in place.
2. Develop a set of rules for survival
Discuss with your family the points of survival and safety during civil unrest or disaster. Write down some important rules everyone should follow in the midst of chaos and disaster. We’ve written a number of articles on the topic or post-disaster survival and survival during civil unrest that you can review that are designed to help one mentally prepare for extreme chaos and/or lockdown in their area:
How to Protect Yourself From Post-Disaster Urban Crime
Protecting Yourself During Civil Unrest
Survival Lessons From Venezuela
How to Prepare for Martial Law
3. Practice and Prepare
While you’re planning out what to do in the case of a widespread state of emergency, make sure you’re also planning for survival in general, and cultivating a mindset of survival in your children. Don’t worry about scaring them, while you should definitely stick to age-appropriate descriptions of potential doom and gloom, many young children are often excited to learn about many of the aspects of survival. Don’t act scared about it and they won’t either. Remember, you are their source of reassurance in life, so if you feel confident about your family survival plan, they will do.
Each family will have different needs when it comes to serious disaster, so there’s no one-size-fits-all plan. The important thing is to be talking and thinking about, and planning for, survival. Failure to plan means planning to fail, so even a basic plan can go a long way towards ensuring your family comes out of a disaster safe and together.
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