Updated Sep. 23, 2019. Originally published Oct. 15, 2013.
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What is Emergency Information?
Emergency information is what you or your family might need to know to respond to a crisis. The distinction between this and the emergency plans we’ll deal with next week is, in some cases, somewhat subtle. Roughly, those will be things you need to do, whereas this is more about what you need to know.
Emergency information might include instructions for taking care of your children, your pets, and/or your home if you needed to go away. (You might already have this information because of planning for travel. If so, you can just make sure someone would be able to find it if you were suddenly called away.)
It might include information about how to handle a minor crisis of the house itself – how to shut off the water and/or power if necessary.
It might include instructions/information that would be needed by someone else if anything ever happened to you. (I call this my “what if” file. I have a computer file that directs folks to the important papers they’d need, and includes things like instructions to my husband regarding what/how to feed the baby if I were suddenly not around – things he doesn’t usually have to worry about, because I just do it.)
This would also include any emergency contact numbers you need to have on hand: neighbors or relatives you’d need to be able to contact in an emergency, the doctor’s office, the hospital, etc. (For most of my readers, I assume that 911 will put you in touch with any fire & rescue-type people you need, so you probably don’t need that information. But if you have young children you might want to write it down anyway.) It’s also a good idea to include a “you are here” section with your own address and call back number, in case someone who doesn’t live at your house has to make the call – or just in case someone panics and forgets during an emergency.
STEP 1: Gather your emergency information.
Probably, you will want most of this to be in one place, but you might want your contact information more readily visible – like on the fridge or the inside of a cabinet door. Be sure anyone else who might need the information knows where to find it!
Resources:
- How to Organize your Important Records in a Master Information Kit (Lifehacker article)
KidStar Safety Who-I-Am Child ID Kits with Fingerprint & DNA Samples (5 Pack)
Veltec Fingerprint Ink Pad for Notary, Identification and Security ID, Law Enforcement Fingerprint Kit
If you’re just stumbling across this, please click here for the other posts in the series.
[…] What comes to my mind is the research I’ve done, and preparations I’ve made, for my children, especially in the areas of health and education. While these are just as much under my husband’s authority (of course!) as everything else, they are areas he has largely entrusted to me. If anything happened to me, would he know which of our homeschool resources are for what (or even what we have)? Would he know what brand of vitamins I’ve chosen for the baby? Granted, these things are of relatively minor importance and he could certainly choose something else, but is it really necessary or desirable that he should have to “reinvent the wheel” in an emergency? […]