Guide to Emergency Planning

Step 1: Brainstorming

First we are going to sit down with all members of the household and are going to brain storm as many possible disasters, emergencies, and scenarios as you can come up with. Everything from a broken arm to the zombie apocalypse. I specifically include the silly and impossible at this stage because it makes it fun for the whole family. They all compile on to one giant list.

Step 2: Prioritize

Now we are going to sort the list based on a two factors. Probability and Impact. Set a time line for your plan, I recomend a period of 3 years out as that's about how long preps take to build and be recycled. So for each item in the master list, we assign it a score. 1-10 of "how likely is this to happen in the next 3 years" and 1-5 "how much of an impact will this have" So while laser wielding zombie dinosaurs may still have a major impact, the likelyhood of it happening is extremely low. This is going to give us a list of the most likely and most impactful events, customized to your household.

Scoring guide for Probability

• 0 – Impossible: Cannot occur under current conditions.
• 1–3 – Very Unlikely: Possible but rare; unexpected or extraordinary events (e.g., civil unrest, unusual weather anomaly).
• 4–6 – Possible: Could occur at any time; plausible risks tied to chance or circumstance (e.g., house fire, theft, localized accident).
• 7–9 – Likely: High probability; events that occur regularly or repeatedly (e.g., seasonal storms, routine crime trends).
• 10 – Certain/Imminent: Almost guaranteed to occur in the near future.

Scoring guide for Impact

• 0 – No Impact: No effect on daily life or business operations.
• 1 – Minor Impact: Small disruptions; inconvenience but daily routines continue largely unchanged.
• 2 – Moderate Impact (Localized): Noticeable disruption; preparation helps mitigate issues.
• 3 – Significant Impact (Widespread): Substantial disruption; daily operations or routines are impaired without prior preparation.
• 4 – Major Impact: Complete interruption of daily life or business operations; prolonged recovery required.
• 5 – Severe Impact: Catastrophic disruption across the region; loss of civil services, utilities, or infrastructure.

Score Calculation

Step 3: Convert scenarios into effects

With each scenario on our list we are going imagine the scenario as fully as we can, and try to imagine all the resources you might need for that scenario. We will eventually come to a list of all the needs for each scenario. So let's start with a simple one: Emergency Room visit. The needs are things like:

• Unexpected costs
• Overnight stay
• need for documentation (medical information, RX, Phone numbers)
• need for transportation
• need for emergency child care
• need for emergency pet care
• need for entertainment (waiting rooms are boring)

• need for an overnight stay
• need for documentation (home owners insurance, deed)
• ...

Step 4: Score the needs

Each Need that appears in the list gets a score based on the

Step...

step here

Step...

step here