Two important parts of your family emergency plan are having an out-of-town contact person and setting meeting points should members be separated during the event. However, you might not be able to recall important telephone numbers and addresses due to high stress. Even if you keep details in a phone or personal organizer, these may be lost, damaged or discharged at the time you need them most. One solution is distribute emergency plan cards amongst your family. These should contain the essential elements of your plan and be kept with them at all times. Feel free to use the PrepareManila.org Emergency Plan Card template which you can find in the Resources section. Go ahead and download, print and give copies to all your friends and family.

How to use the emergency plan card

I've kept the template simple and fairly free-form so you can customize it to suit your own plan. Simply cut it out and fold down the middle to create a small business card-sized booklet. The front page should contain your out-of-town contact telephone numbers and meeting place locations. The back can contain special notes about the plan itself. There will be a blank space for the middle pages where you put anything you want, such as reminders, procedures or other important telephone numbers. Download the Emergency Plan Card template.

A digital emergency plan card for iOS devices

Update 10 April 2014: There is now an iPhone app version of a paper-based emergency plan card called Emergency Plan for iPhone. It has an advantage that your phone stays updated as part of your every-day use so is more likely to have your contacts' latest details. Of course, a disadvantage is that it's unusable if your battery is dead but its usefulness is more for the immediate aftermath of a crisis. Apple iPhone and iPad users can download it on the App Store. For more details, see the developer's site. Continue Reading