KNW-134
Family First
Adapted and modified for the Gulf Coast area by Earl Pack, AE5PA.
Base material from an 8/22/2007 Cook County ARES
training article by Gregory D. Rosenberg AB9MZ.
Used with the permission of Gregory D. Rosenberg.
edited 05 Aug 2025 by Paul Smith (K5PRS)
It is great that many of us give of our time and volunteer in ARES or similar volunteer organizations. Without preparation, however, volunteers who are activated will “run out of the door” to help others and leave their family ill-prepared, stranded, at risk or even in peril because they failed to plan appropriately ahead of time. Remember this and repeat it frequently, “Failing to plan IS planning to fail” and if you missed a step in your planning or preparation it could cost your family dearly. Bad things happen. No matter whether you are home with the family or you are stuck many miles away, if you have not prepared for the current emergency they could die. You should not ignore this training.
As ARES members, we are responsible to ensure the safety and well being of our families first, ourselves second and our ARRL volunteering comes last during any disaster. Doing otherwise could cause you to become part of the problem instead of part of the solution. Not taking care of your family first can also create a serious distraction because you are going to be thinking about them and wondering if they are OK rather than doing your comms job.
There are many scenarios that you could consider when making such plans but if you plan for the worst, you will have planned for them all. So what is the worst scenario? An unforseen disaster has occurred, the family is scattered, they must evacuate immediately and you cannot get home to help them, possibly for weeks.
In such a situation, your spouse has to be ready to do what both of you would do if you were at home with them. Fewer hands means that it will take more time which might mean leaving some stuff behind. The KNW-102 Are you ready? training provides more specific details and will help prepare you and your family for this scenario.
Things to consider:
- Getting Home. You should have a 72 hour get-home bag, water and hi-energy food plus your radio kit in your vehicle. Your sensitive radio gear should be protected in a Faraday enclosure. This will keep you alive for three days to get you home or to get established at an EOC or agency and prepared for ARES duty if called upon. If you can walk home in three days or less, go. The situation will determine if the family has to leave without you.
- Where are the kids? Hopefully you will know but older kids have more freedom and you may not know their exact locations. If cell phones are down, you should have a plan for that. Where should they go so you can quickly find them? HAM or GMRS radios would be great options (don’t forget those Faraday enclosures and spare batteries). In the worst case, you may not be able to get to a child in which case they will, hopefully, bug-out with someone else. See #3 Comms and #7 Contacts below.
- Comms If you cannot communicate with your spouse, it will be difficult for both of you. If your spouse is not a HAM with appropriate gear, make sure they know of several HAMs at the bug-out locations who can get messages to and from you. Establish bands, frequencies and times when you will make contact. List vhf/uhf repeaters in those areas. Put it in writing!
- Bug-out Locations/Routes Whether a campground, a motel or a friend’s or relative’s home, bug-out locations have to be pre-planned and pre-arranged. You will not be able to relax and concentrate on other things until you know that your family is safe. Multiple locations in multiple directions with multiple routes planned with detours around possible bottlenecks recorded on paper maps kept in baggies in vehicles is best.
- Memory In highly stressful or dangerous situations, the mind can go totally blank. Put it on paper and put it on the refrigerator or carry it with you. Pre-plan and pre-position gear and supplies. In these situations, printed lists will be lifesavers.
- Leaving Home Hopefully there will be a home to which you can return. To help ensure that, the home must be secured. Turn off all circuit breakers, especially the main if there is one. Turn off gas and water mains where they enter the house. Leave a note hidden in a prearranged, hidden spot indicating where the family has gone. It could be as simple as a two digit number like 32 indicing that the family went to bug-out location 3 via route 2 plus the date and time. Lastly, and if there is time, empty the refrigerator/freezer taking the perishables with you if you have an ice chest with ice or leaving it in or by a dumpster on the way out of town (not in front of the house) and close the blinds/curtains.
- Contacts If your cell phone dies, could you reach your spouse, your children or other contacts from a land line or borrowed cell phone from memory? Make sure everybody carries a printed list with them. Don’t forget your extended families who might be able to help with resources if needed.
- Replace Yourself Arrange for relatives or close friends who live nearby to assist in the gathering of children, hooking up a trailer or packing the bug-out vehicle. Note that caravans will be safer than single vehicles if you can arrange it.
- Self-Defense Your wife and children would be traveling and living alone under difficult and dangerous conditions. There are many options to consider but
they should be prepared to deal with dangers they might face. Someone riding ‘shotgun’ as a guard should be considered. - Children Children who are bored or frightened could become a problem. Take personal electronics, toys, games, books, etc. to keep them occupied.
- Pets Pets must go with you, preferably in crates if there is room but on leashes with chest harnesses at minimum. Food and water are, of course, mandatory. Be sure to secure pets before you open vehicle doors at stops or the family is likely to have to leave without them.
This is not an all-inclusive list. As you plan and prep, you will recognize other areas that need to be addressed. Again, incorporate KNW-102 into your prepping and if you realize that something important is missing from either, please let me know and I may add it to the training.
In some ways, living here on the Gulf Coast has put us in a less prepared position because most of the disasters we have responded to or been involved in have had several days of notice ahead of time to prepare in a low stress situation but there are several disasters that we could experience that will not give any significant lead time. Remember the forest fire in Waller County and the severe winter storm complete with extended power outage of 2021 that caught us all by surprise? Learn from the preparations that those who live in earth quake areas have made – or who failed to prepare! Also remember that no matter how well you prepare you are going to need to be flexible but prepared for the specific situation. Ensure that you have what is needed to allow and facilitate that flexibility. Knowledge, experience, practice, planning and documentation.
Make good use of the Boy Scout motto: Be Prepared!
That concludes tonight’s training. Are there any questions, comments or suggested additions to this material?
Thanks, this is (callsign) clear to net control.
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Paul Smith, K5PRS
k5prs@aol.com