Exercise your family's Emergency Plan

I got a call from Adam (Jon's brother) this afternoon. His fire department was testing their emergency procedures and part of that exercise includes every employee exercising their own family emergency plan. I am Adam's out-of-state contact, meaning that in an emergency, he calls me, and I will make and take any calls for him. That way they can reduce the amount of calls going on in his area, tying up precious telephone and cell phone resources.

As I was looking at my own plan, I realized that I don't have all the information on family that I need, most specifically, I lack the home address and home telephone numbers of most of the brothers and sisters. Thank goodness for exercises that can show us the lack in our own plans.

Another example of the value of exercising your plan is our first fire drill in Sterling. We spent Monday night working with the kids (ages 6, 4, and 2 1/2). We talked about feeling the door with the back of your hand, crawling out below the smoke, and our outdoor meeting place. Then we tested the plan by sending the children to their rooms and pressing the button on the fire alarm. Jared, then 2 1/2, came out of the room running with his hands over his ears! This is NOT how we exercised!

We retrained the kids and tried again. They did great. Then we told them to try to open their windows to test the alternate route outside. It was then that we discovered that their tall, narrow windows had top latches that they would never be able to reach. It was something that we would never have discovered if we had not exercised our family plan.

So, I am asking all of you to do a few things:

1. Talk with your own family and come up with a plan to communicate with one another, communicate outside the area with your out-of-state contact, and have a fire escape plan.
2. Exercise each of your plans. Find out what works and what needs to change.
3. With daylight savings change, you should review what is in your 72 hour kit, as well as change the batteries in the smoke detectors.
4. Then (specifically for our Rosenlund and Madsen brothers and sisters) I want you to email me with your home address, home phone, and cell phone. Then I will distribute the whole list back to you for your own plans.

Its the time of year to begin a review of your plans. Remember, when they say that "Now is the time to prepare," they weren't kidding.

For more help, visit www.ready.gov, www.grand-island.com/ready, or your own local emergency management office.

Are you ready?