Plan. Prepare. Practice.

A long time ago my mother taught me how to use dinner utensils at fancy meals. That way, she said, if I were invited to dine in an unfamiliar setting, I wouldn’t have to worry about what I was doing with my forks and knives, I could concentrate on the conversation. That was good advice.

Here’s some more good advice: Plan, Prepare and Practice. When it comes to getting your family ready for emergencies, you need to make a plan, prepare an emergency GO-bag with your personal and essential items, and practice how you will evacuate your home and what route you will take to gather your family members. You don’t want to think about these things when you’re in the situation, you need to concentrate on getting to safety.

So, to be specific:

1. Plan - Fill in the Readiness Playbook which includes your family’s plan and emergency information. You can find it at vlesdesigns.com.

2. Prepare - Get your GO-bag together. You can buy emergency and first aid items and put them together in a bag with other personal items or order a pre-prepared GO-bag from us at vlesdesigns.com.

3. Practice - Make sure you and your family know where to go and how to get there in case of an emergency situation.

By planning, preparing and practicing you’ll be able to concentrate on getting to safety, not on gathering your essentials.