A family plan should still work when mobile data is slow, one person is away from home, and nobody remembers a phone number. Keep it short enough to use under stress and make a paper copy.

Hands of a child, an adult, and an older adult arranging blank colour-coded cards and symbol tokens on a kitchen table, with two phones face-down beside them.
A communication plan only works if the youngest and the oldest person in the house can both use it without a phone in their hand.

Decide the five essentials

  1. Out-of-area contact: one person outside the immediate area who can collect updates.
  2. Two meeting places: one near home and one outside the neighborhood.
  3. Check-in schedule: specific times or event triggers rather than constant messaging.
  4. Information sources: utility alerts, local emergency management, weather radio, and school or workplace channels.
  5. Departure message: where you are going, who is with you, the route if appropriate, and the next check-in.

Ready.gov advises texting rather than talking when networks are congested. A short message can be retried by the network and uses less battery than repeated calls.

FEMA’s communication-planning guidance recommends written phone numbers, indoor and neighborhood meeting places, out-of-neighborhood and out-of-town locations, and regular practice. It also advises brief calls and text-first communication to reduce congestion and conserve battery. (Source: Ready.gov, Family Emergency Communication Planning.)

Assign roles before people separate

Role Primary person Backup Required information
Household coordinator Name Name Who is safe, home status, next check-in
Out-of-area contact Name Name Receives updates and reconnects separated members
Dependent/caregiver contact Name Name Medication, mobility, school or care location
Utility/building contact Name Name Account/address, outage reporting channel
Pet responsibility Name Name Carrier, leash, medication, destination

One person can hold several roles in a small household, but every role needs a backup if that person is unreachable.

Use one message format

Teach everyone to send:

SAFE / LOCATION / NEED / NEXT CHECK-IN

Example: SAFE / HOME / NO POWER, WATER OK / TEXT AGAIN 8 PM

Do not include sensitive details in broad group chats. Send destination information to the designated contact and trusted household members.

Use status codes consistently:

  • SAFE — no immediate help needed;
  • HELP — assistance needed but not a 911 emergency;
  • 911 — emergency services called or immediate life threat;
  • LEAVING — destination and expected arrival sent privately;
  • ARRIVED — safely at the destination;
  • NEXT — next planned check-in time.

Do not invent codes so complex that a child, guest, or stressed adult cannot remember them. Plain language is usually better.

Establish an information hierarchy

Check sources in this order:

  1. Wireless Emergency Alerts and official emergency notifications.
  2. Local emergency management, fire, police, public health, and utility channels.
  3. NOAA Weather Radio or the relevant weather service for hazardous weather.
  4. School, workplace, building management, and transportation alerts.
  5. Credible local news for context.
  6. Social or neighborhood reports treated as unverified until confirmed.

Wireless Emergency Alerts are geographically targeted messages sent by authorized public-safety officials through participating carriers. They are useful, but no single channel should be the whole plan. (Source: FCC, Wireless Emergency Alerts consumer guide.)

Write down at least one local radio frequency or station and the phone number for the utility, building management, school, and local emergency management office.

Make the plan work offline

Print or handwrite:

  • household mobile numbers;
  • the out-of-area contact;
  • utility and insurance numbers;
  • school, workplace, caregiver, and medical contacts;
  • both meeting places;
  • essential medication and accessibility notes;
  • local radio stations and emergency alert instructions.

Put copies in wallets, school bags, go bags, and the home plan. Children should have age-appropriate information without carrying unnecessary private details. Contacts are one part of what the household needs to reach without the internet; the offline emergency information plan covers the rest — maps, procedures, and local instructions the phone normally supplies.

Do not place Social Security numbers, full financial account numbers, alarm codes, or complete medical files on a child’s contact card. Include only what is needed to reconnect and communicate urgent needs.

Store a protected digital copy for recovery, but do not assume cloud access or biometric unlock will work when the device is dead, damaged, or held by someone else.

Choose meeting places that solve different failures

  • Indoor location: used for a hazard that requires everyone to gather inside.
  • Outside-home location: a safe visible point used after leaving the building.
  • Neighborhood location: used when the immediate property cannot be occupied.
  • Out-of-neighborhood location: used when local access is restricted.
  • Out-of-area destination: used for evacuation or extended loss of services.

Each location must be familiar, accessible, open under likely conditions, and compatible with pets or mobility needs. A school, store, or parking lot may be closed or inside the affected zone; choose alternatives.

For every location, record two routes and the condition that makes it the active choice. Do not move merely because one person misses a check-in; use the escalation sequence first.

Create an escalation sequence

  1. Send the standard text once.
  2. Wait until the planned retry time rather than redialing continuously.
  3. Try the out-of-area contact and secondary channel.
  4. Check the known school, workplace, caregiver, or building procedure.
  5. Ask a nearby trusted contact to check only when doing so is safe.
  6. Call 911 only for a life-threatening emergency, not general outage information.

FEMA guidance advises waiting before redialing, keeping calls brief, and using text to reduce network congestion. (Source: Ready.gov, Family Emergency Communication Planning.)

Protect phone battery

Lower brightness, use battery-saving mode, disable nonessential background activity, and check for updates at planned intervals. Keep one phone as the household information device while others remain in reserve when practical.

Battery banks should be charged and labeled with their tested capacity. Vehicle charging is a backup, but never idle a vehicle in a garage or other enclosed or partly enclosed space.

Use a communication power budget:

  • reserve one phone for official alerts and essential calls;
  • schedule information checks rather than refreshing continuously;
  • download maps, contact cards, and key documents before severe weather;
  • disable unnecessary video autoplay, hotspot use, and background syncing;
  • keep the phone warm in cold conditions without placing it against unsafe heat;
  • use paper notes for household status instead of repeated messages within the same home.

Calculate charging needs with the power station runtime calculator, but keep one independent battery radio or other channel.

Plan for children, disability, and language

Children should know their full name, the public name of a caregiver, when to call 911, and where the contact card is stored. Practice without frightening them or making them responsible for adult decisions.

For disability and access needs:

  • provide large-print, tactile, pictorial, or audio versions as needed;
  • include relay, TTY, caption-phone, or video-phone information;
  • make meeting places accessible by the transport actually available;
  • identify who brings mobility equipment, chargers, medication, and service-animal supplies;
  • record the preferred communication method rather than assuming voice calls.

If household members prefer different languages, include essential messages and official alert sources in each language. Do not depend on live translation during network congestion.

Protect location and identity information

Share exact destinations only with people who need them. Avoid public posts announcing that the home is empty, where fuel or equipment is stored, or which route a vulnerable person is taking.

Keep screenshots and forwarded alerts with their source and time. A cropped message without a date, jurisdiction, or issuing authority can create a dangerous misunderstanding.

Practice two scenarios

Run one drill when everyone is home and another when people are at work or school. Confirm that the out-of-area contact understands the role. Test whether each person can find the paper plan and whether meeting places are accessible under current conditions.

For civil unrest or shelter-in-place situations, agree that nobody leaves merely because a rumor circulates. Use official local instructions, avoid active disturbance areas, and communicate before changing location when it is safe to do so.

Score the drill:

  • Could everyone find the paper plan in under two minutes?
  • Did the out-of-area contact answer and understand the role?
  • Did each message contain status, location, need, and next check-in?
  • Could a child or guest use the plan?
  • Were both meeting-place routes accessible?
  • Did the phone battery remain above the planned reserve?
  • Which contact or instruction was outdated?

Update and reprint the plan after every household, school, work, care, medication, phone, or address change. Ready.gov recommends reviewing and practicing at least annually; ReadyLience recommends also checking it before the household’s main severe-weather season.

For the alert layers that support this plan, use How to Receive Local Emergency Alerts Through Multiple Channels. For a consent-based neighborhood layer, use Neighborhood Emergency Check-In Plans Without Oversharing. For the limits of text, voice, radio, internet, and satellite features, use Text, Voice, Radio, and Satellite Communication Limits Explained. For the power that keeps the plan usable, use the Emergency Charging Plan for Phones, Radios, and Power Banks.

If a dedicated alert receiver is part of the plan, the research-only NOAA emergency radio guide explains the reception, alerting, battery, control, and accessibility evidence that should be checked before choosing a category.

Connect this plan to What to Do When the Power Goes Out, the home security guide, and the full Power Outage Preparedness hub.

Sources reviewed

  • Ready.gov Family Emergency Communication Plan
  • Ready.gov family communication plan for children

Sources reviewed July 13, 2026.