Home Safety Checklist Before and After a Disaster

Emergencies with a purpose can happen suddenly or can be sudden and generally not give us time to prepare ourselves or our homes. The disaster can range from a flood, tornado, hurricane, earthquake, storm, fire, and even a terrorist event. While such events are traumatic, the steps you follow in the event of an emergency will make the difference in lives-important ones and property. Safe home practices begin even before the disaster strikes, not the moment you experience an event. Having time to prepare your home for an unexpected emergency will save time when something horrible occurs.

A little pre-planning will reduce injuries, loss of valuable items, and recovery will be quicker and easier should exist. A checklist for home safety measures, will keep you on track, eliminate panic, and ensure you are not missing anything important before and after a disaster occurs.

Home Safety Checklist Before a Disaster

By readying your home before a disaster event, you gain and improve the chance of saving lives, reducing damage, and recovery down the road. This checklist will show specific actions that will make your home more self reliant when you're gone and limited if ever at all. In undertaking these steps, you will improve the likelihood this has a positive impact on your life, property, and family in an emergency.

1. Protect the Structure

Develop a habit of looking at the most vulnerable areas of your home. Have you seen some missing shingles on your roof, or cracks in your walls, or safe change in your foundation? You may be interested in considering storm shutters or impact resistant glass on all of your windows. Be certain your doors have locks and frames that will stay closed against the extremes of wind or an object striking it.

2. Utilities and Appliances

Be aware of where your home's gas, water and electricity remain turned and main shut offs exist. If you have enough advance noticed to turn them off they could prevent or reduce fire, flooding and gas leaks. Secure your large heavy items like appliances and anything else heavy like bookshelves to the wall to prevent things from falling over when things start to boom during earthquakes or high winds.

3. Emergency Supplies & Equipment

Have emergency supplies set aside at home that you can easily and quickly get to. Your emergency supplies will typically consist of non perishable food, drinking water, flashlight, extra batteries, first aid, medications, and other supplies you deem important. At a minimum you should have at least one fire extinguisher in your home, so that everyone in the home knows where it is, and how to use it.

4. Family Communication Plan

Identify a safe location outside of your home to meet, and identify a safe location in your area in the event you cannot return to your home. Write down the important contact numbers (laws, local officials, family members, etc.), and your contact numbers need to be available to others.

5. Important Documents

Take pictures of your IDs, insurance documents, property information, and medical information in a waterproof and fireproof bag. You can also save these documents digitally in secure cloud storage as a back-up.

You may also want to read "What Triggers Natural Disasters? A Beginner’s Guide" to better understand events that could damage utilities and appliances.

After a Disaster – Home Safety Checklist

Dealing with a disaster can be a daunting experience. Your first priority is safety. Before even thinking of entering your house and starting to clean, you need to evaluate hazards and ensure that your family stays safe.

1. Determine Structural Safety

First Look for aboveground visible damage: leaning walls, sizable cracks, sagging roofs or broken beams. If you think the home could potentially be unsafe to enter, don't enter, unless you'd had a professional assess it first.

2. Watch for Hazards

Watch out for downed power lines, leaking gas, and standing water – it could be contaminated. Don’t let children or animals enter harm's way.

3. Investigate Utilities Before Use

Please do not switch on gas, water or electric services until it has been checked or inspected by a competent person. Gas, water and/or electric damage can cause a fire or explosion or get shocked.

4. Clean Up Safety

If possible, while cleaning up, you will want to protect yourself with gloves, rugged, non slip work boots, a mask for protection against sharp objects and debris, and hazardous dust and molds. It is also advisable to have adequate ventilation for the area you are cleaning up.

5. Documenting Damage For Insurance Claims

To protect your insurance claims, take pictures or video of all damage before you begin repairs or clean-up. Make a handwritten list of items that were damaged with their value.

Learn how digital tools can enhance emergency communication in "5 Ideas: The Functions of Mobile Apps in Preparation for Emergencies".

Extra Tips for Your Safety Updates

Safety for a disaster is not a “one-and-done” deal – it is a continuous process. The best part about staying on top of home and family preparedness all year long, is that it can keep your loved ones much more safe and prepared when the unexpected strikes.

• Keep your checklist current – Update/check your safety checklist every few months to ensure something is not out of date.
• Join in drills – Helping family coordinate what to do when you evacuate or shelter-in-place with all family members gaining the understanding of their duties.
• Check emergency kits - Keep updating expired food, medicine, and batteries.
• Stay informed - Stay current on local weather alerts and community safety alerts.
• Protect property - store both physical copies and electronic files of everything that is valuable to you.

Conclusion

Being prepared for before a disaster happens or knowing what to do after a disaster will enable you to have either nothing, or a safe recovery, versus chaos. An updated home safety checklist, supplied you with the reality of what to possibly do within your property to protect your family and limit property damage. Disasters cannot always be foreseen, preparedness can. Prepare today so that when something happens, you are able to adequately and confidently respond.