How to Make a Family Emergency Communications Plan

Quick answer: Write down everyone’s phone numbers on paper, choose one out-of-area contact everyone checks in with, and agree meeting points near home and outside your neighbourhood. When networks are busy, text rather than call. Keep a battery or wind-up radio for official news, and keep emergency alerts switched on. Then practise once so everyone, including children, knows the plan.

Most of us carry our whole address book in our phones. That works until the battery dies, the network jams or the phone is left at home. An emergency communications plan is a short, written agreement about how your household will find each other and get news when the usual ways fail.

It costs almost nothing, takes about an evening, and it’s one of the most useful things you can do. Yet in the UK government’s 2025 public survey, only 10% of people said they had agreed meeting points with family or friends.

Why phones and the internet can fail in an emergency

Ready.gov’s planning guide puts it plainly: mobile phones and computers may be unreliable in a disaster, and the power may be out. Phone lines can also get tied up when everyone tries to call at once, and local lines can jam.

So the plan has to work on paper and in people’s heads, not only on a screen. If you want to see what a large outage looks like, read our post on lessons from the Iberian blackout.

Step 1: Write down the numbers that matter

Start with a printed contact list. Ready.gov, Canada’s Get Prepared and the UK’s Be Ready campaign all recommend keeping key numbers written down, not only stored in phones.

Include:

• Everyone in the household: mobile, work and school numbers, and email.
• Your out-of-area contact (see step 2).
• Schools, nurseries and carers, plus who is allowed to collect your children.
• Doctors, pharmacy and vet.
• Utilities: in the UK, the power cut number is 105 (England, Scotland and Wales).
• Insurance and other important services.
• A medication list with doses, for anyone who needs regular medicine.
• Local radio frequencies for news, as the UK Be Ready guidance suggests.

Make a copy for every person. Ready.gov suggests a wallet-sized card for bags, purses and school bags, and another copy somewhere central at home, such as the fridge.

In each phone, save at least one contact under “ICE” (In Case of Emergency) so first responders can find it. Ready.gov also suggests creating a group list of the people you’d need to message in an emergency.

Step 2: Choose an out-of-area contact

Pick one relative or friend who lives well away from you, ideally in another region. Everyone in the household checks in with this person if you are separated.

The reason is practical. Ready.gov notes that in a disaster it can be easier to make a long-distance call than a local one, because local lines may be jammed. Canada’s Get Prepared also recommends an out-of-town contact to help family members reconnect.

Tell your contact they’re part of the plan, give them a copy, and make sure they know how to text.

Step 3: Agree your meeting points

Ready.gov suggests deciding on several places, from close to far:

Meeting point	When you’d use it	Example
Inside the home	Storms or high winds	A small interior room without windows
Near home	Fire or a reason to leave the house quickly	A neighbour’s house or a lamp post at the end of the street
Outside your neighbourhood	You can’t get home	A library, community centre or place of worship
Outside your town	Your area is told to evacuate	A relative’s or friend’s home

The UK Be Ready guidance suggests a family meeting place that is easy to find and open to the public. Canada’s advice mentions a community centre, library or school. Make sure each place works for anyone with limited mobility, and for pets if you have them.

Step 4: Text, don’t talk

When networks are struggling, a short text often gets through when a call will not. Ready.gov explains that a text needs far less capacity than a voice call, and it can wait and send automatically once space frees up.

Canada’s Get Prepared says the same: use text, email or social media if you can, and keep calls short if you must call.

Agree a simple message format in advance, such as your name, that you’re safe and where you are. For example: “Sam OK. At library.”

Step 5: Keep a radio and know your official sources

If mobile data and broadband are down, broadcast radio may still reach you. Keep a battery-powered or wind-up radio with spare batteries. It is on the kit lists of Ready.gov, Canada’s Get Prepared and the UK’s Be Ready checklist, which asks for an FM radio.

• United States: NOAA Weather Radio broadcasts official warnings and forecasts around the clock. The Emergency Alert System also sends warnings through TV and radio.
• Canada: Get Prepared advises listening to radio or TV, or going online, for information from local authorities.
• United Kingdom: write down the frequencies of your local stations so you can find news quickly.

Keep a charged power bank too, so your phone lasts longer. Our power outage guide has more on keeping devices running.

Step 6: Keep emergency alerts switched on

Most countries can now send a loud warning straight to every compatible phone in a danger area. You don’t need to sign up, and these alerts are broadcast from mobile masts, not sent to your number.

• UK Emergency Alerts work on 4G and 5G networks. Phones make a loud, siren-like sound for about 10 seconds, even on silent. The government doesn’t need your number to send one. Phones that are off, in flight mode or on 2G or 3G only won’t receive them.
• US Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) are free and need no subscription. They carry warnings from authorised officials and AMBER alerts, and use a distinctive sound and vibration.
• Canada’s Alert Ready reaches compatible phones connected to an LTE network, as long as the software is up to date.
• EU countries: under EU telecoms law, member states had to make sure public warnings could reach mobile users by 21 June 2022. Options include cell broadcast built to the EU-Alert standard, which the EU telecoms regulators’ body BEREC describes as the equivalent of the US system, location-based text messages, or an app.

Check your phone’s emergency alert settings today. In the UK, people experiencing domestic abuse who keep a hidden phone may choose to turn alerts off, and the government’s guidance says this.

Step 7: Practise it once

A plan nobody has tried is easy to forget. Ready.gov suggests regular household meetings to review it. A simple practice run:

1. Everyone sends a text to the out-of-area contact.
2. Send one group message to the household list.
3. Walk to your near-home meeting point with the children.
4. Tune the radio to your local station and note the frequency.

What this means wherever you live

The details change from country to country, but the basics don’t. Paper beats phones when the power is out. One distant contact is easier to reach than many local ones. A pre-agreed place means nobody has to guess.

A communications plan also works best with supplies behind it. To see how your water, food and power would hold up, see how many days your household would last. For the kit itself, read our 72-hour emergency kit guide. If you have young children or pets, our guide to babies and pets in emergencies covers their needs.

Communications plan checklist

• Printed contact list for every household member, plus one on the fridge
• “ICE” contact saved in every phone
• One out-of-area contact chosen and briefed
• Meeting points agreed: near home, outside the neighbourhood, outside town
• School and carer emergency plans checked, and pick-up people agreed
• Everyone knows how to send a short text
• Battery or wind-up radio, spare batteries and local frequencies written down
• Charged power bank for each adult
• Emergency alerts switched on in every phone
• Practice run done, and a date set to review the plan

Keep your plan simple, keep it on paper, and in an emergency follow the instructions of your local authorities.

Sources & further reading

• Ready.gov – Create your family emergency communication plan (PDF)
• Ready.gov – Emergency alerts
• Government of Canada – Make an emergency plan
• Alert Ready – Wireless alerts (Canada)
• UK Government – Be ready for emergencies
• GOV.UK – Emergency Alerts
• GOV.UK – How Emergency Alerts work
• GOV.UK – UK public survey of risk perception and preparedness 2025: headline findings
• European Electronic Communications Code – Article 110, public warning system
• BEREC – Guidelines on public warning systems (PDF)