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 but if you have planned and prepared properly, their needs will be met and you can concentrate on your ARES duties. Doing otherwise could cause you to become part of the problem instead of part of the solution. Not taking care of your family first would 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? A disaster has occurred, power is out nationwide, the family is scattered, they must evacuate immediately and you cannot get home to help them, possibly for weeks. Without plans in place, this would be a terrifying situation for everybody.
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 that they might need to survive. The KNW-102 Are you ready? and KNW-112 Go Bag Part 1 training modules provide more specific details on what to prep 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 minimum radio kit in your vehicle at all times. 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.
- 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! Test it!
- 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 all 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 or even scrawled on the front door if it’s encoded indicating where the family has gone. It could be as simple as a two digit number like 32 indicating 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.
It is likely that your home will be looted while you’re gone. Make sure that your insurance is current and that you have photographs of everything. - 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, laminated list with them. Don’t forget your extended families who might be able to help with resources or comms 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. Caravans will be safer than single vehicles if you can arrange it.
- Self-Defense This is always a touchy subject but your wife and children might 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. Children over the age of 12 should carry some kind of self-defense tool and should be proficient with it.
- Children Children who are bored or frightened could become a problem. Take personal electronics, toys, games, books, etc. to keep them occupied. Give them chores so they feel useful and needed. Taking care of pets, filling water containers, cleaning up after meals, etc. will help them feel involved and will help normalize the situation for them.
- Pets Pets must go with you, preferably in crates if there is room but on leashes at minimum. Food and water are, of course, mandatory as are their meds. Be sure to secure pets before you open vehicle doors at stops or you may have to leave them behind.
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 or even weeks 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