Our family made an emergency plan. Here’s how it went

Spring and summer can bring a range of weather emergencies in Australia, from bushfires to floods and severe storms.

And as Tropical Cyclone Fina tracks towards the Northern Territory coast, it's more important than ever to be prepared.

Our home lost power during one of the many Queensland storms that have been unleashing wild winds, hail and rain in recent weeks.

As we scrambled to find candles or a torch, I realised how underprepared we were if our home or suburb was more severely impacted. 

The federal government's National Climate Risk Assessment forecasts that extreme weather is likely to affect more regions than ever before.

Meanwhile, data from the Australian Red Cross shows that while 90 per cent of Australians have been affected by an emergency or disaster in their lifetime, only one in three (35 per cent) were prepared.

So, I sat down with my family to make an emergency kit and an emergency plan. Here's how we did it and what we spent.

How we made an emergency plan

Dinner time is the one moment of the day I know we are all together without distractions, so it was naturally the best opportunity to talk about an emergency plan.

Leah Parlour, the director of community preparedness with the Western Australia Department of Emergency Services, recommends having all family members involved.

That way, "kids know they've got a set task that they've got to do, so it lessens the stress for them," she says.

"It also gives the parents time to collect their thoughts and do what they need to do."

First step: Know what kind of emergency you could face

You can check your area's risk by using the National Emergency Management Agency website.

We hopped onto the Get Ready Queensland website, which rated our area's risks based on our postcode (unsurprisingly they include flooding, storms, bushfire, heatwaves and cyclones).

The process of creating the emergency plan itself was straightforward and only took about 15 minutes. 

We just followed the online prompts, which included listing members of our household, important contacts and creating an evacuation plan.

Then we downloaded a copy of the plan, which also had a range of helpful prompts, such as how to prepare your home during a weather alert and important emergency numbers relevant for our area.

There are also paper-based emergency plans available, which you can print and fill out.

Ms Parlour says doing this work will help in "those stressful situations where you may not be able to think logically, it will help you step out what's in your plan".

How we put together an emergency kit

An emergency kit is packed with essentials that you can grab easily in the event of an emergency at home or if you need to evacuate.

Before we delve into what my kit contains, experts say lists on what to pack should be used as a guide and be customised to meet your individual household needs and types of emergencies you are preparing for.

I drew on information from two sources, the ABC Emergency website and the NSW Health pantry list, which lists specific items that I simply added to a click and collect grocery order.

For $63 I bought some non-perishable foods and a few basic toiletries to get my family through at least a few days:

• Ready-to-eat meals x 8
• Breakfast cereals (multi pack)
• Long-life milk (multi pack)
• Tinned food
• Ready-to-eat rice
• Bottled water (24 pack)
• Toiletries (feminine hygiene products, hand wash, shampoo and conditioner, soap)

The NSW Health pantry list recommends including snack foods such as dried fruits, nuts, biscuits, spreads and crackers, which I have a reasonable supply of at any given time, so I can throw them into the kit last minute.

While my kit is basic, it is worth noting that some emergency advice recommends households have enough food, water and essential items to enable them to be confined at home for between three and 14 days.

For my kit, I also purchased two battery-operated torches from a local hardware store for $14 and a battery-operated radio for $19, bringing my total spend to $96.

Things I already had on hand that I put in the kit:

• First-aid kit
• Adult and children's analgesics/painkillers
• Spare batteries
• A portable phone charger

We also created a written list of things we would need to put in last minute if we were evacuating, including prescribed medications, important documents (which I already keep in a folder), house and car keys, pet food and precious items such as jewellery or photographs.

I put everything into a plastic storage tub I had sitting in the garage and printed off a label for the front (experts say a large backpack on wheels would also do the trick).

"You really need something that's easy for you to carry and grab," Ms Parlour says.

We popped our kit in an easy-to-access cupboard in the hallway and importantly, everyone in the household knows where to find it.

Get Ready Queensland recommends packing your emergency survival kit well before you might need it and regularly checking expiry dates on items.

Planning helps build 'emergency resilience'

The Australian Red Cross says getting children involved in the emergency preparation can help reduce panic and improve resilience in an emergency event.

Deputy chief executive officer Penny Harrison says the group's Pillowcase Project workshops strengthened community resilience and empowered children by teaching them what items they can pack into a pillowcase to start their own personal emergency kit.

"As disasters increase across Australia, so does the impact on our communities and wellbeing," Ms Harrison says.

I drew inspiration from the project and created pillowcases for my own kids, which they can use in an emergency event.

I used some pillow covers I found in the linen cupboard that have small handles and got the kids to write on the front with a black pen.

Pillowcase Project suggested items (I excluded items already in our kit):

• Change of clothes
• Your medicine
• Toiletries
• Blanket
• Pencil and paper
• Book
• Torch
• Something special

The whole process of emergency planning wasn't as daunting as it seemed, and now, we are all have a sense that we're much better prepared for our next blackout, or heaven forbid, something worse.