December 2010 - Family Communication Plan

December Ward Member Topic

Family Communication Plan

Disasters may strike when your family is scattered at work, school, socializing, etc. If forced to evacuate your house, how will you communicate and reunite? Complete the following list and share it every family member.

* Two reunion points - locally near the house (in case of house fire) and a remote site. Pick someplace sheltered and 24-hr like the home of a friend or relative.

* An out-of-state emergency contact person. Long distance phone calls often work when local lines are jammed. Pick one remote person to receive status calls.

* Select computer sites to use. Post your status via email and Facebook when possible. The Red Cross has a webpage for posting status messages at https://safeandwell.communityos.org

* Leave messages on cell phones. Texting often works even when the cell tower is overwhelmed with voice calls.

* Notify the local police that you've evacuated and where you can be reached.

Don’t forget to include grandparents, other relatives, and your Bishop, in the plan. They will be worried about you and want to know where you are.

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Instead of a poster this month we recommend all families visit this website to help prepare their plans:

http://ready.adcouncil.org/beprepared/fep/fep.do

This site prompts you for descriptions and contact information for all family members, plus work, and school, and police, etc and then location and phone for emergency family gathering sites.

At the end you can print out wallet sized cards with this information for family members to carry. ---------------------------

Happy Thanksgiving!