Household Emergency Plan and Risk Assessment

Work out what could actually happen where you live and prepare for that

6 minAdvancedUpdated 2026-10-23 Household Emergency Plan and Risk Assessment

You will learn

Rank the real risks for your home by likelihood and impact
Write a one-page plan for staying, leaving and reuniting
Reduce the biggest risks with practical changes to the home

⚠️ If you are in immediate danger, contact local emergency services. Follow official evacuation orders without waiting to confirm them.

⚠️ Never turn a gas supply back on yourself after an earthquake or suspected leak; call the utility.

Assess your actual risks

Preparation works best when it is specific. Make a simple table with two columns: how likely is it in the next ten years, and how bad would it be. Consider power cuts, storms, flooding, wildfire, heatwave, earthquake, a house fire, a burst pipe, a serious illness at home, and a loss of income. Check official hazard maps for your address: flood zones, wildfire risk, and seismic zones are all published. Ask neighbours what has happened in the last twenty years. The events that score high on both columns get your attention first. For most homes that is a power cut, a house fire and whichever local natural hazard applies.

💡 Your insurer's policy documents list what they think can happen to your home. Read the exclusions.

Stay or go

Every plan has two branches. Sheltering in place is right for power cuts, storms and most heatwaves: you need the 72-hour kit, water, a safe room away from windows and a way to hear official updates. Evacuating is right for wildfire, flood and gas leaks, and the rule is to leave early, before roads jam and smoke closes them. Decide in advance the triggers that mean go, such as an official order, smoke visible from home, or water reaching a certain point on the street. Know two routes out of your area in different directions, and where you would stay: a relative, a friend or an official shelter.

Write the one-page plan

Keep it to a single page on the fridge and a photo on every phone. Include: emergency numbers and your out-of-area contact; two meeting points; where the kit, the grab bags, the water shut-off, gas valve and electrical consumer unit are; each person's role, such as who grabs the pets, who takes the documents, who checks on the neighbour; the evacuation routes and the destination; and medical notes for everyone. Add a checklist for leaving in five minutes: people, pets, medicines, documents, kit, keys, phones. Long plans are never read. A short plan that everyone knows is the goal.

💡 Give each child one job in the plan. Owning a task turns fear into focus.

Reduce the risk itself

Planning for an event is good; making it less likely or less damaging is better. Fit smoke and carbon monoxide alarms on every floor. Learn where the water, gas and electricity shut-offs are and label them. Strap tall furniture and the water heater to the wall in earthquake areas. Clear gutters and keep a 50 metre zone of managed vegetation around rural homes in wildfire country, as Portuguese law requires. Keep valuables and documents above flood height. Keep the car at least half full of fuel in fire season. Check your insurance actually covers the hazards on your list. Each fix is small; together they change the outcome.

Practise and review

A plan that has never been rehearsed falls apart under stress. Twice a year, when you rotate the kit, walk through one scenario as a household: a night-time house fire, or an evacuation order with five minutes to leave. Time it, note what went wrong, and fix it. Include the people who need most help, such as small children, older relatives and anyone with a disability, and include pets, because people refuse to evacuate without them. Review the risk table after any real event nearby and whenever you move, have a child or change jobs. Preparedness is a habit, not a purchase, and the point of all of it is calm.

💡 If you are in immediate danger, contact local emergency services. Every plan starts there.

Check yourself

How should you rank the risks for your home?

Events that are both likely and severe for your address deserve attention first; official hazard maps and neighbours tell you which.

Which event usually calls for leaving early rather than sheltering in place?

Wildfire, flood and gas leaks require evacuation before roads close; power cuts and heatwaves are usually managed at home.

How long should the written household plan be?

A single page that everyone has read and can find beats a detailed document nobody opens.

How often should the plan be rehearsed?

Pairing a rehearsal with the twice-yearly kit check keeps it current and turns the plan into a habit.

Try it for real: Write and rehearse your plan

Look up official flood, wildfire and seismic maps for your address and build your risk table
Write the one-page plan and put it on the fridge and on every phone
Label the water, gas and electricity shut-offs and show everyone at home
Run a timed five-minute evacuation drill with the whole household, pets included
Fix the two biggest problems the drill revealed