Being prepared means having a plan of action. With so many different unexpected happenings in the world, you need to be ready for anything. That can be overwhelming!

But, it is important to have a clear path to what you are preparing for. What you need to prepare for may vary greatly from your neighbor or friend across the country. No two family circumstances are alike! 

This article will guide you to understand how to get more organized with your preparedness efforts. 

What emergencies should you plan for?

The first thing to proper preparedness planning is understanding what emergencies you should plan for. 

If you are trying to prepare for everything, you may wind up not being well prepared for anything – or worse, the wrong thing.

Disasters and emergencies happen around the world every day. But not all will personally affect you and your family. This is why the planning step is the most critical. 

Before you invest any money into preparedness goods, take a moment and do the steps below. This will help your prepping efforts be much more beneficial in the long run. 

ronniechua on Depositphotos

A word of caution

Before I dig into the good stuff, I just want to give you a word of caution. 

This article is not meant to incite fear. Nothing on this blog is. But, the reality is that some of these things happen and they can cause stress and anxiety just thinking about it. 

But do not let the fear get to you! 

Use this planning process to decrease your stress and anxiety. By planning well and getting what your family needs for a variety of events – you can feel less stressed knowing you are read for anything! 

So, let’s get prepping shall we! 

Step 1: Make A List of Emergencies

Making a list of emergencies is a great start to understanding all the different things that can happen.

This should be a collaborative project with the family or you can use AI to help you. Making sure you do not miss any emergencies is important to proper planning.

Keep in mind, not all of these things will happen to you. We just want to be aware of all the things that might affect you. Include all emergencies – big and small. 

Some of the more common include:

  • Car accident or breakdown
  • Economic depression
  • Physically disabling accident
  • Job loss
  • Water shortage
  • Water contamination
  • Civil unrest / riots
  • Burglary (car or home)
  • House fire
  • Snow
  • Power outage
  • Mudslide
  • Viral outbreak (pandemic)
  • Wild fire
  • Earthquake
  • Tornado
  • Tsunami
  • Hurricane
  • Flooding

Hopefully this can get you started! You may think of more than I did though. Focus on issues that are most likely to happen in your area. 

Step 2: Rate each disaster

The next step requires giving each disaster a “chance” rating. I use a scale of 1-4 in response to four different factors including chance of the disaster happening, how often it can happen, and how bad of an impact it would be on the family. 

Be realistic here! I am in NJ and I had hurricane on my list – but gave it a 1 since we are not known for hurricanes. But Hurricane Sandy came along and showed me a thing or two. Sadly we were not ready for that disaster as much as we could have been. We do not live in a flood zone – but yet, we flooded. 

I changed my list after that and am now more prepared for a flood.

Below are the factors and scoring metrics you should use.

Likelihood: How likely is this to happen to you?

1 = This will likely never happen to me / in my area
2 = This may happen to me / in my area
3 = This will likely happen to me / in my area
4 =This is very likely…almost guaranteed to happen to me / in my area

Frequency: How often could this happen to you?

1 = If this did happen, it would likely only happen once
2 = This could occur a few times in my lifetime
3 = This could occur as often as yearly
4 = This could occur regularly

Effect: How seriously would this change your life if it did happen?

1 = This would bother me if it happened, but have little lasting impact
2 = This would create a serious inconvenience for me
3 = This would significantly change my life for a limited period of time
4 = This would change my life for the unforeseeable future

As you do this, ask yourself questions and give some thought to each one. This process will help you understand what makes sense for your family.

For example you do not need to worry about a winter car emergency kit if you live in Florida. But every kid should have a school survival kit – no matter where you live! 

Step 3: Add up the ratings

Add up the totals of values you gave each factor for each disaster. 

You should come up with a number between 3-12 for each item. As an example:

Hurricane: 2 for how likely, 1 for how often and 3 for how serious would equal a total of 6. 

Now, rewrite your list down in order of the highest total number to the smallest. The ones with the highest score at the top of the list are the emergencies you should prepare for first! 

The ones at the bottom of the list you can ignore or just do the bare minimum for. 

Download the planning checklist

Below is what I used in may planning process. I decided to share it with you in the hopes it helps. 

I have noted some of the most common emergencies and disasters that can happen. I also left some space so you can add your own. Download the prepper planning PDF here or click the image below. 

planner for prepping screenshot
MWAP

This whole process will narrow down what matters the most to your family based on where you live. 

When we completed this for our family, our top emergencies included:

  • Power outage – old infrastructure in our area
  • Car accident – husband has a long commute to work, this is why we created a get home bag for dad
  • Economic depression – we both have jobs that can be replaced by AI
  • Burglary – this is on the increase in our area
  • Storm related home damage – we are seeing an increase in dangerous storms

In our area, weather is rarely an issue. We did have a hurricane like I mentioned above, that is a rare occurrence. 

That list is a LOT shorter than the one above, right?

One I prepare for those first five things, then I can move on to the next five which included:

  • Earthquake – we have had some more frequent tremors in the last year
  • Water shortage / contamination – new construction and old systems are a concern
  • House Fire – always a concern in a community environment and the lack of rain we have had
  • Pandemic – obviously after COVID we should all prep for this

This is how I work though my list! I hope you found this helpful and if you have questions or recommendations I am all ears. Just leave a comment!