Is your family ready for an emergency? If you had to leave your home and evacuate your local area, do you know what you would take, where you would go, or how you would get there? When we plan for contingencies, we allow ourselves the opportunity to feel empowered, to feel  in control. If a storm of epic proportions approached your home, that little, tiny feeling of control just may make the difference between calm and hysteria for you and your family. It never hurts to prepare for emergencies. Hopefully you and your family will never need this information but, if you ever do, wouldn’t you feel better if you were prepared?

Have a Plan

The first thing you’ll need to do is have a plan and discuss it with your family. Here are a few questions to consider when devising your plan:

Transportation

Do you have reliable transportation? If you do, do you always keep the gas tank full? If you don’t, then you should consider doing so or at the very least, keep enough cash on hand to do so in the event of an emergency. If you do not have reliable transportation, is there someone nearby with whom you and your family could ride with in the event of an evacuation?

Money

When the people in an area are asked to evacuate, the first thing they’ll do is go to the nearest automated teller machine (ATM) for the cash to do so. Don’t count on being one of the first ones to the ATM. Have a small amount of cash tucked away at home for such an emergency.