HazardNow Preparedness Series
Go Bag
72-Hour Go Bag Checklist
Build a practical go bag for 24–72 hours with essentials for food, water, power, documents, first aid, and household-specific needs.
Emergency Preparedness Guide
Build the plans, kits, maps, and communication habits you need before the emergency starts.
HazardNow supports situational awareness and preparedness. Always follow official alerts, evacuation orders, and instructions from local emergency management and public safety agencies.
Preparedness Infographics
Save, share, and reference these visual guides for go bags, home kits, communication planning, evacuation decisions, and emergency maps.
These emergency preparedness infographics cover a go bag checklist, home emergency kit guidance, shelter in place vs evacuate decisions, a family emergency communication plan, and emergency maps to keep before connectivity fails.
HazardNow Preparedness Series
Decision Guide
Shelter-in-Place vs. Evacuate
A simple visual decision guide for when sheltering may make sense, when evacuation may make sense, and why official orders come first.
HazardNow Preparedness Series
Home Kit
Home Emergency Kit Checklist
A practical home emergency kit checklist for water, food, power, sanitation, first aid, documents, and safe home readiness.
HazardNow Preparedness Series
Communication
Family Emergency Communication Plan
A visual guide to out-of-area contacts, group text planning, meeting places, backup charging, and what to do when networks are overloaded.
HazardNow Preparedness Series
Maps
Emergency Maps You Should Have
A guide to the paper, offline, evacuation, and local hazard maps worth keeping before roads, batteries, or connectivity become the issue.
Save the guides. Then check live conditions.
These HazardNow visuals are built for planning and sharing. Use the full preparedness guide to build your plan, then use the dashboard to monitor changing conditions.
Preparedness at a Glance
🧭
Plan
Know hazards, meeting places, contacts, and household needs.
🗺️
Map
Keep paper and offline maps so you are not dependent on cell service.
📱
Communicate
Decide how your household checks in if calls/data are unreliable.
🎒
Equip
Build go bags, home kits, car kits, and first aid supplies.
📡
Monitor
Track official alerts and broader situational awareness signals.
⚖️
Decide
Know shelter in place vs evacuate and follow official orders.
Before an Emergency
- ✓ Know likely local hazards: wildfire, flood, winter storm, severe weather, earthquake, power outage, heat, chemical release, or local risks.
- ✓ Sign up for local emergency alerts.
- ✓ Choose two meeting places: one near home and one outside the area.
- ✓ Pick an out-of-area contact.
- ✓ Photograph or scan critical documents.
- ✓ Know utility shutoffs where appropriate.
- ✓ Keep vehicles reasonably fueled or charged during elevated-risk periods.
- ✓ Review and practice plans at least twice per year.
- ✓ Account for pets, children, older adults, disabilities, medical equipment, prescriptions, and mobility needs.
Preparedness is not about predicting every scenario. It is about removing the first few points of failure before stress, darkness, weather, or poor connectivity make decisions harder.
Emergency Maps You Should Have
Digital maps are useful until batteries die, networks congest, or GPS becomes unreliable. A basic map set gives you options when the fastest route is blocked or official evacuation traffic changes.
Local street map
Regional/state road map
Evacuation route map
Offline phone maps
Topographic map for rural, mountain, fire, or backcountry areas
Locally relevant hazard maps: flood, fire risk, tsunami, earthquake, storm surge, or landslide
Mark these on your maps
- ✓ Home
- ✓ Work/school
- ✓ Family locations
- ✓ Hospitals and urgent care
- ✓ Emergency shelters
- ✓ Fuel stations
- ✓ Pet-friendly shelters or boarding options
- ✓ Alternate routes
- ✓ Bridges, canyons, flood-prone roads, mountain passes, or other bottlenecks
- ✓ Local emergency management office or public safety information sources
Family Emergency Communication Plan
Communication is often one of the first things to fail during a disaster. The goal is to reduce decision-making when calls do not go through or family members are separated.
- ✓ Choose an out-of-area contact.
- ✓ Print wallet contact cards.
- ✓ Create a group text thread before an emergency.
- ✓ Decide check-in windows, such as every 2–4 hours if separated.
- ✓ Teach household members to send short texts instead of repeated calls when networks are congested.
- ✓ Keep battery banks charged.
- ✓ Keep charging cables in go bags and vehicles.
- ✓ Know local alert sources.
- ✓ Keep a battery, crank, or NOAA Weather Radio where appropriate.
Low-signal rule: Try SMS first, keep messages short, conserve battery, and avoid repeated voice calls unless urgent.
Go Bag Checklist
A go bag should help you leave quickly and safely. Keep it light enough to carry and practical enough that you will actually maintain it.
Home Emergency Kit
A home kit is for staying put when travel is unsafe, stores are closed, utilities are down, or supply chains are temporarily disrupted.
Never use outdoor grills, camp stoves, charcoal burners, or generators indoors or in attached garages. Carbon monoxide can be deadly.
Car Emergency Kit
Your vehicle may become your waiting room, evacuation platform, or backup charging station.
First Aid Kit
Supplies are not a substitute for training. Consider basic first aid, CPR, AED, and bleeding-control training.
Shelter-in-Place vs. Evacuate
Shelter-in-place may make sense when...
- • Officials tell you to stay indoors.
- • Severe weather makes travel more dangerous.
- • Roads are blocked or unsafe and there is no evacuation order.
Evacuation may make sense when...
- • Officials issue an evacuation order.
- • Wildfire, flood, storm surge, or other hazard threatens your area.
- • Leaving early is safer than waiting for congestion or closures.
Official evacuation orders override generic preparedness guidance.
How to Use HazardNow Before and During an Emergency
HazardNow is most useful before a decision becomes urgent. Use it to scan changing conditions, compare signals, and know when to check official sources more closely.
Use HazardNow as situational awareness, then verify high-impact decisions with official emergency management, NWS, FEMA, DOT, utility, or local public safety sources. See FAQ.
Preparedness is the plan. HazardNow is the live scan.
Printable Preparedness Checklist
- ✓ Plan
- ✓ Maps
- ✓ Communication
- ✓ Go bag
- ✓ Home kit
- ✓ Car kit
- ✓ First aid
- ✓ Review schedule
FAQ
1. What should be in an emergency preparedness kit?
Include water, food, light, communications backup, first aid, medications, documents, sanitation supplies, and household-specific items. Keep both a go bag and a home kit.
2. How much water should I store for an emergency?
Use at least one gallon per person per day. Keep three days minimum and build toward up to two weeks at home where practical.
3. What is the difference between a go bag and a home emergency kit?
A go bag supports 24–72 hours on the move. A home kit supports sheltering in place for longer disruptions.
4. Should I shelter in place or evacuate?
Follow official instructions first. Shelter when directed indoors or travel is unsafe; evacuate when ordered or home safety is degrading.
5. What maps should I have for an emergency?
Keep local street maps, regional road maps, evacuation routes, offline phone maps, and locally relevant hazard maps.
6. How should families communicate during an emergency?
Set an out-of-area contact, check-in windows, short SMS habits, and backup charging/radio options before an incident.
7. Is HazardNow an official emergency alert source?
No. HazardNow is situational awareness context and does not replace official alerts or evacuation orders.
8. How often should I review my emergency plan?
Review at least twice per year and after major household, health, or location changes.
Source context
- Ready.gov / FEMA preparedness guidance
- CDC emergency water and kit guidance
- American Red Cross preparedness guidance
- NOAA Weather Radio / National Weather Service alerting context
HazardNow is not an official emergency alert system and does not replace local emergency management, NWS, FEMA, or public safety instructions.