Appearance
9.1 — The One-Page Plan
Everything in this volume that requires a decision made in advance, on one page.
Fill it in, print it, put a copy in each go-bag and one on the fridge, and give one to whoever needs it.
It takes about thirty minutes.
The page
Emergency numbers
Unified emergency: 112
Ambulance: 108 (most Indian states)
Fire: 101 · Police: 100
Cyber crime: 1930 · Childline: 1098 · Women's helpline: 181
Mental health: Tele-MANAS 14416 · KIRAN 1800-599-0019
And: our doctor, our hospital, our insurer, the gas supplier, the electricity board.
Our people
Out-of-area contact — one person, not local, whom everybody calls or messages when local networks fail.
Name, number, and everybody in the household knows it by heart or has it on paper.
Neighbours — three names and numbers.
And: who on our street is elderly, alone, disabled, or dependent on powered medical equipment.
Meeting points
Near: the specific place we go if we cannot get back into the house.
Far: the specific place we go if we cannot get back into the area.
And: what time we wait until before assuming somebody has gone to the far point.
Who has whom
Who collects each child, from where, and who is the backup.
Who gets each dependent adult.
Who takes the pets.
Who grabs the bags.
And: what the school or care setting's own procedure is — worth finding out once.
Our triggers
The conditions decided in advance (5.1), written as sentences.
If an evacuation order is issued, we go immediately, regardless of how it looks outside.
If water reaches [specific point], we move upstairs with the kit.
If we feel strong shaking near the coast, we go inland and uphill without waiting for a warning.
If there is smoke, we get out, stay out, and call from outside. Nobody goes back for anything.
Write the two or three that apply to where you live.
Our exits
Two routes out of the house, and everybody has walked both.
Two routes out of the area, and one of them is not the obvious one.
And where the go-bags are.
Our utilities
Water stopcock: [where]
Gas valve: [where]
Electricity consumer unit: [where]
And the tool needed for any of them, kept beside it.
Everybody in the household has been shown all three.
Our medical page
For each person: conditions, medications and doses, allergies, blood group if known, doctor's name.
Where the medication is kept, and where the spare autoinjector or inhaler is.
And any advance decision or wish, and who is authorised to speak for whom (4.1).
Our documents
Where the originals are.
Where the copies are — including one location reachable without a phone.
And who else knows.
Our access
The thing 4.4 and 6.7 both said and almost nobody does.
How somebody would get into your accounts if you could not.
A password manager with an emergency contact, or a sealed envelope somewhere secure, and one person who knows it exists.
Filling it in
Thirty minutes, with everybody who lives with you in the room.
And the parts that generate discussion are the parts that needed it — who collects the child, what the trigger actually is, what happens if two people are at work.
That discussion is most of the value. The page is the artefact; the shared understanding is the thing.
Reviewing it
Once a year, attached to something you already do (5.12).
Ten minutes.
What changed? Numbers, schools, jobs, medications, who lives here, who is now frail.
And re-walk one route.
Giving it away
Two copies out of the house.
One to the out-of-area contact.
And one to whoever would need to step in — a sibling, a neighbour, a friend.
A plan only you know is a plan that fails at the moment you cannot execute it.
The version for a person living alone
Because it is different and it is frequently the situation.
The out-of-area contact matters more, not less.
Agree a check-in convention with one person: if you do not hear from me by X, do this.
Make sure one person can get into your home — a key with a neighbour or a relative.
Keep the medical page where it would be found — on the fridge is the convention emergency services look for.
And 1.3's detail: if something is seriously wrong and you are alone, unlock the door first, then call, then sit down near it.
What this page replaces
A great deal of anxiety.
Because most of the fear people carry about emergencies is not about the event. It is about not knowing what they would do — and that is a solvable problem, in thirty minutes, once.
And after that you are permitted to stop thinking about it, which is the actual goal of the whole volume (1.4).
What to do with this page
Fill it in this week, with everybody in the household present.
Two copies out of the house.
Everybody knows the out-of-area contact and both meeting points.
Everybody has been shown the three shut-offs.
And write the two or three triggers that apply to where you actually live. The trigger is the mechanism; everything else is preparation for executing it.
Next: 9.2 — the kit, finalised, as one list.