A plan is a short set of decisions everyone in the house knows ahead of time. Ready.gov says to talk through five things together: how you will get alerts, where you will shelter, how you will evacuate, how you will stay in touch, and whether your kit needs updating.

Also learn the plans at places your family spends time, like school, daycare and work, and how pick-up works there in an emergency.

Text, don't talk. Unless you are in immediate danger, send a text. Texts often get through when calls do not, and they leave lines open for 911 (or your local emergency number). Teach everyone in the house how to text.

Plan to get by on your own for several days. Ready.gov's basic kit:

Water runs out before food does. A normally active adult drinks about three quarters of a gallon a day, and in very hot weather that need can double. The rest of the daily amount goes to basic washing.

Sealed, store-bought bottled water is the simplest choice. Keep it in its original container in a cool, dark place. If you fill your own containers, use food-grade water storage containers and clean them first.

If local officials tell you the water supply is contaminated, you may need to shut off your main water valve. That keeps bad water out of your pipes and protects the water already inside your house.

Water from outdoors (rain, streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, springs) must be treated before you drink it. Floods can also contaminate well water.

⚠ Boiling and bleach do not make water with fuel, toxic chemicals, heavy metals, salts or radioactive material safe. Use another source and call your local health department.

Boiling is the best way to kill germs. If the water is cloudy, let it settle and pour off the clear water, or strain it through a clean cloth, paper towel or coffee filter first.

Distilling also removes germs and many other contaminants. Fill a pot halfway, tie a cup to the lid handle so it hangs upright inside the pot without touching the water, and boil for 20 minutes. The water that drips into the cup is distilled.

Use plain, unscented household chlorine bleach. If the label has instructions for treating drinking water, follow them. If not, find the sodium hypochlorite percentage on the label (usually 5% to 9% in the US) and use the table below.

Iodine: 2% tincture of iodine works too. Add 5 drops per quart or liter (10 drops if cloudy or colored), stir, and wait at least 30 minutes.

⚠ Skip iodine if you are pregnant, have a thyroid problem or are sensitive to iodine. No one should drink iodine-treated water for more than a few weeks.

⚠ Until water is treated, do not use it to drink, brush teeth, wash dishes, make ice, cook or mix baby formula.

Keep at least a several-day supply of food that needs no refrigeration, no cooking and little or no water. Buy food your household already eats. A crisis is a bad time to learn you hate something.

Store-bought canned food is already cooked. You can eat it straight from the can.

Germs multiply fast between 40°F and 140°F. Your goal is to keep cold food at 40°F or below for as long as you can. Keep the doors shut. Every opening lets cold out.

⚠ Never taste food to find out if it is safe. When in doubt, throw it out.

A damaged can may still look fine inside. Throw it out anyway. Also discard any food that looks or smells wrong, even if the can looks normal.

After a flood, throw out any food in cardboard packaging that touched floodwater, including juice, milk and baby formula boxes. Undamaged cans can be saved.

⚠ Charcoal grills and camp stoves are for outdoor use only. Indoors they can kill you with carbon monoxide.

After a disaster, illness often spreads through human waste. Floodwater and broken sewers carry germs that make people sick if swallowed or if they reach a cut. Clean hands and a sealed toilet system are how you break that chain.

Soap and water is the best way to remove germs. If tap water is unavailable or unsafe, set up a handwashing station with a large water jug, and use water that has been boiled or disinfected if officials advise it.

When soap and water are not available, use hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.

⚠ Sanitizer does not kill every germ, works poorly on visibly dirty or greasy hands and may not remove chemicals. Wash with soap and water as soon as you can.

Which setup you need depends on what failed.

⚠ Do not flush if water or sewer lines may be damaged. Do not dig a hole for a toilet: raw sewage can pollute groundwater. Never use dry bleach, and never use pool chlorine products dry. Products meant to be mixed with water can be dangerous dry.

Use regular, unscented household bleach (5% to 9% sodium hypochlorite). Clean off dirt first, then apply the solution, then let surfaces air dry.

⚠ Never mix bleach with ammonia or any other cleaner. The fumes can be deadly. Open windows and doors, and wear rubber gloves, boots and eye protection.

Your go-bag is the portable part of your kit (see Make a Plan and Build a Kit). Keep it where everyone knows to find it.

Follow the instructions of local officials. Leave early enough that bad weather does not trap you. Be ready to evacuate on foot if you must.

⚠ Never drive into floodwater, and stay clear of downed power lines.

Officials decide which one is safer for your area, so listen for their instructions on the radio, TV or a phone alert. Sometimes the safer choice is to stay put, for example during a tornado warning or when the air outside is badly contaminated. Sometimes it is to leave.

If you go to a public shelter, expect crowded and difficult conditions. Bring your kit plus soap, hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes. To find an open shelter, text SHELTER and your ZIP code to 43362 (standard rates apply), or use the FEMA app.

⚠ This chapter is a reminder, not a substitute for training. Take a hands-on class from the American Red Cross, the American Heart Association, or Stop the Bleed. Practicing on a manikin or a training tourniquet is what makes these steps work under stress.

Wear disposable gloves if you have them. If you do not, a plastic bag over your hand or having the person press on their own wound lowers your contact with blood.

Bleeding is life-threatening when blood is spurting or flowing steadily, or when the amount on the ground is about half a soda can or more (less in a small child). A person can die from blood loss within minutes, so act right away and call 911.

⚠ Once a tourniquet is on, do not loosen it or take it off. Only medical professionals should remove it. Leave any object stuck in a wound in place; pad around it and, if a tourniquet is needed, put it above the object.

A store-bought tourniquet with a windlass works far better than an improvised one. If you keep one, keep it where you can reach it fast and learn to use it in a Stop the Bleed class.

Use this when an adult or teen collapses, does not respond, and is not breathing or is only gasping. Hands-only CPR means chest compressions without rescue breaths. If you are trained in full CPR with breaths, use your training.

If the person is lying in water, move them out first. An AED is safe to use in rain or snow. Do not delay to remove jewelry, but avoid placing pads directly over it or over a visible implanted device. Broken ribs can happen during compressions; they heal, and they are not a reason to stop.

Signs of a blocked airway: hands at the throat, weak or no cough, high-pitched squeaking or no sound, cannot speak, and skin turning pale or blue. If the person can cough hard or talk, encourage them to keep coughing and stay with them.

⚠ Call 911 for burns that are deep (skin looks white, brown, or black), cover a large area, wrap around a limb, the chest, or the neck, or are on the face, hands, feet, joints, or groin. Also call for any electrical, chemical, or explosion burn, a burn in a very young or elderly person, or anyone who breathed in smoke. A small electrical burn can hide serious internal injury.

Shock means the body is not getting enough blood flow. It often follows severe bleeding, a severe allergic reaction, or any serious injury, and it gets worse over time. Call 911 for anyone who shows these signs.

You cannot tell a bad sprain from a break without an X-ray, even if the person can move the limb. Treat every bone, joint, or muscle injury as a possible fracture.

⚠ Call 911 if the limb is bent or deformed, bone shows through the skin, there is heavy bleeding, the area below the injury is cold, pale, blue, or numb, the injury is to the head, neck, back, pelvis, hip, or upper leg, there are signs of shock, or you cannot move the person safely. With a possible head, neck, or back injury, tell them not to move and leave them where they are unless the scene is unsafe or you must give CPR or stop bleeding.

Check the kit a couple of times a year. Replace anything used up or past its date.

Hypothermia means the body's core temperature has dropped below 95°F (35°C). Cold air or water causes it, but so can long exposure to wind, rain, wet clothes, or sweat on a day that is not very cold. It is a medical emergency.

⚠ Call 911 if the person is confused, has stopped shivering, is breathing slowly, or is not responding, or if their temperature is below 95°F. Do not assume someone found still and cold is dead. Start CPR if they are not breathing, and keep warming them during CPR.

Frostbite is frozen skin and the tissue beneath it, most often on fingers, toes, ears, nose, and cheeks. Because the area goes numb, people often do not notice it. Redness or pain can be the first warning.

⚠ Blisters, black skin, or any sign of hypothermia need emergency care: call 911. Treat hypothermia first, because it is the bigger threat to life.

Heat exhaustion happens when the body loses more fluid through sweat than it takes in. If it is not treated it can turn into heat stroke, where the body's cooling system shuts down. Heat stroke can kill, and delay makes it worse.

Babies and young children lose fluid faster and cannot get a drink for themselves. Call a doctor if a child has not peed in more than 6 hours, an infant has had no wet diaper in 3 or more hours, or a child cries without tears.

⚠ This chapter does not replace hands-on training. A Red Cross first-aid class covers heat and cold emergencies with practice.

⚠ Turn Around, Don't Drown. Six inches of fast-moving water can knock an adult off their feet. Twelve inches of rushing water can carry away most cars, and two feet can carry away SUVs and trucks. Never walk, swim or drive into floodwater.

More than half of flood drownings happen when someone drives into dangerous water. The road under the water may already be washed out, so never drive around a barricade.

Hurricanes bring wind, heavy rain, flooding and tornadoes, often far inland from the coast.

⚠ Carbon monoxide has no color or smell and can kill. Never heat your home with a gas stove or oven. Use generators and grills only outdoors, at least 20 feet from windows, doors and attached garages.

Extreme heat means high heat and humidity, with temperatures above 90°F for at least two to three days.

⚠ Heat stroke is a life-threatening emergency. Call for help first, then start cooling.

Throw out food that has been at 40 degrees F or warmer for two hours or more, and anything with an odd smell, color or texture. When in doubt, throw it out.

⚠ Never run a generator inside your home or garage, even with doors and windows open. Run it outdoors only, more than 20 feet from windows, doors and vents.

You cannot see or smell CO. Early signs feel like the flu: headache, dizziness, weakness, upset stomach, vomiting, chest pain and confusion. A lot of it can make people pass out or die. Someone who is asleep or has been drinking can die before they notice anything. Babies, older adults, and people with heart disease, anemia or breathing problems are at higher risk.

⚠ If a CO alarm sounds, get everyone out of the house right away and call 911 (or your local emergency number) from outside.

A radio needs no cell tower or internet. CDC recommends a battery-powered or hand-crank emergency radio and calls a NOAA Weather Radio one of the best options.

Handheld two-way radios let family and neighbors talk with no network at all. In the United States, which ones you may use depends on the radio service and your license.

⚠ Range claims on radio packages are not verified here. Real-world range depends on terrain, buildings and the radio. Test your radios with your family before an emergency, and agree on a channel ahead of time.

The ARRL (the national association for amateur radio) has study and exam information and runs ARES, the Amateur Radio Emergency Service, through which licensed volunteers support emergency communications. For signaling without any radio, keep a whistle in your kit, as Ready.gov recommends.

If officials say the outside air is contaminated or full of debris, stay inside and seal yourself in. Keep listening to local media, because instructions may be slow to come.

A sealed room only works for a short time, and only if you planned ahead. Keep plastic sheeting and duct tape in your kit. If you have none, use whatever you have to make a barrier.

A small flame can become a major fire in less than 30 seconds. A house can be engulfed in five minutes. Working smoke alarms buy you the time to get out.

After a nuclear detonation, Ready.gov says you may have 10 minutes or more before fallout arrives. Use that time to reach the best shelter close to you. Any building is safer than being outdoors.

⚠ Do not go out to collect family members. Going outside can expose you and them to dangerous radiation. Schools, daycares, hospitals and nursing homes have their own emergency plans and will shelter the people in their care.

Ready.gov and CDC both say to plan on sheltering for at least 24 hours. Radiation levels fall quickly during the first 24 hours, so that first day matters most.

If someone arrives who was outside, let them in. CDC says sheltering them can save their life without endangering yours. Ask them to take off their outer layer of clothing before coming in, wash any skin that was uncovered, and change into clean clothes if possible.

CDC says removing your outer layer of clothing can remove up to 90% of radioactive material. Do it as soon as you are safely inside.

⚠ Do not use household cleaning wipes on skin. Hand sanitizer does not protect against radioactive material. Tap water is still fine for washing, even if officials have not yet cleared it for drinking.

If you help someone else wash, wear waterproof gloves and a dust mask if you have them. Afterward, wash your own hands, face and exposed skin again.

Medicine: if it was indoors, keep taking it as directed. If the container was outdoors, wipe it off first, then keep taking it.

Officials will announce when it is safe to go out, whether to evacuate, which routes to use and where shelters are. A battery-powered or hand-crank radio keeps working when phones and internet do not.

Potassium iodide (KI) is often sold as radiation protection. Its real job is narrow. It fills the thyroid with ordinary iodine so the thyroid does not absorb radioactive iodine. FDA says plainly that it is not a general protection against radiation.

⚠ Table salt, foods with iodine and iodine supplements are not substitutes for KI. CDC says they do not protect the thyroid this way, and large amounts can hurt you.

CISA groups two different events together because they hurt infrastructure in similar ways.

CISA expects these failures to cascade: when power goes down, water, fuel, communications and stores that depend on it follow, affecting millions of households.

NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center offers free email alerts, watches and warnings for solar storms through its subscription service.

Ready.gov notes that a long outage can close stores, gas stations, ATMs and banks, and can disrupt water and communications. Plan to get by on your own for at least several days, longer if you can.

⚠ Carbon monoxide kills during outages. Run generators, camp stoves and charcoal grills outdoors only, at least 20 feet from windows, doors and attached garages. Never heat your home with a gas stove or oven. Put battery-backup carbon monoxide detectors on every level of your home.

If it gets dangerously hot or cold, go to a community location that has power. Ask local officials which heating or cooling centers are open.

During any outage, Ready.gov says to turn off or unplug appliances and electronics, because power can come back with surges. Leave them unplugged until power is steady.

For EMP, the most detailed federal advice is CISA's EMP Protection and Resilience Guidelines. They were written for operators of critical infrastructure equipment, not households, and the measures were not tested in homes. Here is what they suggest for spare equipment:

⚠ Unproven: many products and videos promise that a box or bag will make electronics EMP-proof. No source we checked tests or guarantees household shielding. Treat foil or a Faraday bag as a cheap backup for spare items like a radio or old phone, not a guarantee. Keep paper copies of anything you cannot afford to lose.

Ready.gov points out that a long outage hits the whole community at once. Plan with the people around you: know who nearby depends on medical devices or refrigerated medicine, and share where the community heating or cooling centers are. If someone is caught outside during a radiation warning, CDC encourages letting them shelter with you.

⚠ Stay put. Moving makes you harder to find. Only move if staying would put your life in immediate danger. Always stay put if it is getting dark, if you are hurt, or if you are close to exhausted.

Before any trip, tell someone your route, when you expect to be back, where your car is parked and who is with you.

Always carry more food and water than you think you need, plus a flashlight, warm layers and matches in a waterproof container, in case you have to spend a night out.

Anything done three times in a row is a widely recognized distress signal: three whistle blasts, three flashes, three fires, three columns of smoke.

Make each symbol at least 1 meter (about 3 feet) wide and 6 meters (about 20 feet) long. If you go bigger, keep the same proportions. It must contrast sharply with the ground.

A map and compass are the best tools, but only if you know how to use them. Practice at home before you need them. The methods below give only a rough direction.

⚠ Knowing direction is not a reason to walk off. If you are not sure where you are going, stay put and let rescuers come to you.

Fire needs three things: air, heat and fuel. Take away any one and the fire goes out. Build it from tinder (fine, dry material that catches a spark), then kindling (small sticks), then fuel (larger wood).

⚠ Do not light a fire when fire danger is high, during wildfire season, or where it is banned. A fire could start a wildfire.

If your fire spreads, call 911 (or your local emergency number) right away.

The Hug-a-Tree program teaches children a few simple rules. A child who stays in one place is found much faster than one who keeps moving.

⚠ For lost children, cold is the main danger, more than hunger or thirst. Staying warm and dry matters most.