What if a disaster happens when you're at work and your children are at school? Or you're shopping for groceries and everyone else is still at home?

Establishing a standard list of contacts is so important to ensuring you keep in touch with your family in a disaster. Remember to include an out-of-state contact - think back to Hurricane Katrina when local calls could not be made, but out-of-state calls could be made.

Print and fill out these Family Communications Plan cards. Instruct everyone in your family to carry this with them everywhere.

In Case of Emergency or I.C.E. is a program that enables first responders to identify victims and contact their next of kin to obtain important medical information. If you are alone when an accident happens, the Paramedic can call your I.C.E. entry to request your medical history, medications, allergies, etc. to better assist in your medical treatment. 

Enter the entry I.C.E. (newer phones have this in your directory) with a name and phone number. If you don't have a cell phone, include your I.C.E. entry on a Family Communications Plan card.

As part of the 9/11 Drill Down for SAFETY Campaign, Safe America Foundation is focusing on the use of wireless devices as “safety tools”. During the National Preparedness Month of September, please join me in a call down drill with your family. Whether a disturbance at school, mall, airport or a weather event, stay connected with FOUR simple letters  - I    M   O  K -   texting IMOK takes less than 2 seconds,  faster than a call, it is a fraction of the bandwidth so 800 additional people can send out the same message in comparison to just one phone call. Learn more here.