Disaster Tip of The Week: Set Meeting Points to Reunite With Family and Loved Ones

Meeting Points

It's hard to believe I wrote a brief post about this over ten years ago - Have a Designated Meeting Place For Your Family. Today, I'd like to expand on this a bit more.

Odds are when a disaster or other unexpected event occurs you are likely to be at work. Your spouse or significant other will also be at work and your kids, they'll probably be at school. Perhaps you're out shopping or your kids are at the movies. 

Then all of a sudden it happens... A major earthquake, wildfire, tornado or other significant event occurs in your area. Your neighborhood is in ruins. 

You barely get out alive. You have no idea where any of the other members of your family are. But you have a plan. 

At this point, I hope you do have a plan to reunite. If not, pay attention and I will help you create your Family reunification Plan. 

Creating a plan is fairly easy. Before we get to that let's talk some basics. First, decide on how many meeting points you will have. While more is better, you will have to physically go to these meeting points at least daily until you reunite with your family. So, you don't want to have too many. 

Working with families on this I have found five to be the magic number most people are comfortable with. Though I will say you should have at minimum three meeting points with at least one location in a major area of your neighborhood that would still be recognizable even if it sustains major damage. 

The first meeting point you select should be the easiest since it should be located just outside your home. It can be the end of your driveway, by the mailbox, the entrance to your building or some other close by location. 

The second location should be either across the street from where you live, outside neighbors' house or just down the road from your home or building. The main reason for this is the proximity. If for instance, your home was on fire, you can quickly meet up with family members, get a headcount and notify the authorities if someone is missing. 

The third location should be the closest major cross-street closest to your home. This is still close enough to home while being in a safer place should that be required. Also, most busy intersections can be safer than just anywhere and allow other people to see you or your family. 

Once you have these three meeting points selected choose another place nearby in your area that is easy to walk to. It could be the parking lot of a major strip mall, gas station, fast food place or any other easily recognizable location that has traffic and a parking area. 

Once you have selected all of these locations you can start to build out other locations as needed. I would recommend as long as it is within walking distance and it is safe to do so include your kid's school as another location. After that, I would consider adding somewhere in the next neighborhood. 

Once you decide on your meeting points go to your preferred online based mapping system. You can also use the map to help you choose locations. 

Once you decide upon a meeting point, you can dd a pin (or meeting point) onto the map and label it as Meeting Point #1. Continue the process for each meeting point you add and then take a screenshot. 

Once you do this you can print out the Meeting Points and add it to your Emergency Binder and/or give copies to each family member. Make sure they know to go to these meeting points after a disaster. 

One other important item to mention here is that you should set a time during the day when each site will be checked and stick to it. Also, make certain your family knows that they can and should go to a shelter if possible. 

This system also works best when coupled with having an Out of State Contact which you can read about there. 

Disaster Tip of the Week: Setup Predetermined Meet-up Locations for After an Emergency or Disaster

One of the more common things to occur after an emergency or disaster is families becoming separated. This is particularly true after sudden large region disasters like earthquakes, tornadoes, wildfires, and mudslides.

This occurs for a variety of reasons, though most commonly because these events can happen when you and your spouse are at work, and the kids are off at school. Though you can’t prevent things like this from happening to you and your family, you can take steps to speed up reunification with your family.

The first step would be to set up predetermined meet-up locations with your family. I recommend that you choose at least three locations, but probably no more than five maybe six locations since someone will have to check each location until everyone is reunited again.

Doing this is quite simple and starting with your first location which I recommend be either the sidewalk or at the end of your driveway in front of your home or apartment. This makes meeting up after an emergency or disaster fairly quickly, especially if everyone is nearby when something happens.

Since this location is the easiest, but also not always practical after an event the second location should also be close by such as across the street from your home or at a designated neighbor’s house.

The third location can be the nearest corner to your home or other location, but I would suggest that you choose an exact cross street location to make things easier. You should also keep it close to home in a familiar place incase street signs are unreadable or missing after the event.

Any additional locations should be at a specific location that is easy to find both geographically or by what is at the location. An example would be the Lowe’s parking lot on Friendly Street and Lovely Place. Well, you get the idea.

If you have school age children you should also check with your school to see what the school has planned in case of a large event. All schools should have such plans in place and they will not release the children to go off on their own. A parent may have to come and pick up the child, or they may go to another school or shelter. I suggest you find out now so you won’t be “surprised” when it happens.

To make your location planning easier, I found a website called Safety Maps that you can use to set up predetermined meet-up locations for after an emergency. It is a free tool set up these locations and lets you include instructions. Just go to Free Planning Map to get started creating yours.

If you have family that works more than an hour’s drive from where you live it may not be practical to meet-up immediately following an event. In that case, I recommend you set up a family crisis communications plan, and I will be doing a post on that for next weeks tip.