Contingency Plans: Your First 72 Hours
Supplies without plans are just stuff.
The household that has six months of food but no family communication plan, no evacuation route, and no agreed-upon procedures for specific emergencies will still make poor decisions under stress — because good decisions under stress come from having already made them. This section is about converting your preparedness supplies and knowledge into actionable plans that every household member knows, that exist on paper, and that have been practiced at least once before they’re needed.
The 72-Hour Plan
Seventy-two hours is the standard window that emergency management agencies use when they tell the public to be prepared to be self-sufficient after a disaster. It’s the time it typically takes for organized emergency response to reach affected households and for basic infrastructure restoration to begin.
Your 72-hour plan covers what your household does in the first three days of any serious emergency — the decisions, the actions, and the resources that keep everyone safe while the situation stabilizes.
What the 72-hour plan addresses:
Immediate response: The first hour.
- Assess the situation.
- Account for all household members.
- Check for injuries.
- Check for immediate hazards — gas leaks, structural damage, fire risk.
- Secure the home.
- Activate your communication plan.
Water:
- Where is your stored water?
- Who knows how to access it?
- What’s the protocol if stored water isn’t available?
Food:
- What’s available without cooking?
- What requires cooking, and with what heat source?
- Who’s responsible for meals?
Power and light:
- Where are the flashlights, headlamps, and lanterns?
- Where are the batteries?
- Is the generator fueled and ready?
Shelter:
- Is the home habitable?
- If not, what’s the immediate alternative?
- Who do you call, where do you go?
Communication:
- How do you reach family members who aren’t home?
- Who’s the out-of-area contact?
- When and how do you check in?
Information:
- How do you stay informed?
- Where’s the emergency radio?
- What frequencies do you monitor?
Medical:
- Where is the first aid kit?
- Who has medical training?
- What critical medications need to be managed?
Pets:
- Where are carriers?
- food?
- water?
- medications?
Writing the plan:
A 72-hour plan doesn’t need to be elaborate. A single page covering the above elements — specific to your household, your supplies, and your location — is entirely adequate. Write it, print it, laminate it, and put it somewhere everyone knows: on the refrigerator, in the emergency kit, in each vehicle.
The plan is only as good as the household’s familiarity with it.
- Walk through it with every member of your household.
- Answer questions.
- Update it when circumstances change.
