At Home – Step 1B of 4

1. Part A – Shelter in Place
   Part B – Shelter away from home (Daisies stop here)

First, Read the Information You Need:

What if you need to leave your home?

In the communication rocker you came up with places your whole family would go to if you had to leave your home. But that was to meet up. Where do you get shelter when you aren’t at home?

Talk to your parents. What is their plan? Their back up plan? Do they have a third option if something happens to the first two?

See if any of the places they name match one of the shelter names in the information below.

Many people think they will just get a hotel room, but there aren’t enough hotel rooms for everyone when an entire city is evacuated.

Others have a house of a friend or family member within driving distance. It should be a place you can get to on one tank of gas, because sometimes gas stations are out of gas or closed during evacuation situations. You should also have an extra container of gas on hand because there is often a lot of traffic when evacuating an area and it will take more gas than normal when you are driving slowly in bumper to bumper traffic.

Some grab their camping tents and plan to stay at a park that allows camping. Parks can fill up, but they might still use it in the parking lot of an emergency shelter area.

Emergency shelters are open to the public, but they can feel crowded. You might not have a lot of privacy, so a tent in the parking lot is preferable to the indoor cots for some families. But others are okay using the indoor Emergency Shelters governments or non-profit organizations provide.

A non-profit could even be a local church that opened their doors to be used as a shelter.

Others will have to make do and build their own shelter using whatever they can find because everything is full.

Not everyone has a vehicle they travel in, but if you do, that could be used as a place to sleep too. It depends on the vehicle and how many people are trying to sleep in it.

Did you notice all those shelter ideas we mentioned? The names stand out.

Second, Chose One Option to Complete:

Option 1: Blanket Fort

Option 2: Plan It

Make sure you know what the first place is your family would try to evacuate to in an emergency. One way you could practice making your own shelter? Blanket forts. You heard right. Blanket forts! Try making a blanket fort, a big one or one with multiple rooms or areas. Haven’t built a big one before? Check this website out for the basics. The techniques for a real emergency shelter are slightly different, but the troubleshooting you do when making a blanket fort are critical for knowing what can go wrong when making a real one. Pay attention to how you secure the blankets, so they don’t fall on you. You need good support, so the blankets don’t sag in the middle of the large area too.

Go through the list with your family. Make a plan and pick three shelters your family could use if you evacuated in the order you would try and use them.

Congrats!

Daisies stop here. You’ve earned the Shelter Rocker!

Brownies, Juniors, Cadettes, Seniors, Ambassadors, and Adults, go Step 2!

Return to Shelter Step 1A page.

Return to Be Prepared, Not Scared main page.