Preparedness can feel overwhelming, and it’s easy to put off. It doesn’t have to be. The most valuable steps are also the cheapest: knowing how your home works, agreeing on a plan with the people you love, and writing it down.
This page gets you from zero to a solid foundation, one step at a time.
1. Understand the approach
OmniCORE plans are layered by duration. A one-week outage needs very different preparation from a one-month or one-year outage. You build the tiers in order, and each one assumes the one before it is in place.
Spend on what’s most likely first. Most outages are regional and last days to a couple of weeks. Get solid at that level before investing in long-term capabilities.
2. Do the foundations this weekend
Tier 0 of the Family Grid-Down Preparedness Plan is information and agreements, and most households can finish it in a weekend:
- ☐ Write down what your home depends on: water, heat, sewer, refrigerated medicines
- ☐ Decide who handles what: water, food, medical, communications, children and elders
- ☐ Learn where your water, gas and electrical shutoffs are, and keep the right tool beside each
- ☐ Print contacts, medication lists and key documents, and keep copies in a waterproof folder
- ☐ Agree in advance when you shelter in place and when you go somewhere else
- ☐ Sign up for local emergency and weather alerts
- ☐ Meet two neighbors and swap phone numbers
- ☐ Do a dry run: shut off the main breaker for one evening and see what’s missing
3. Take stock with the worksheet
The plan ends with a household worksheet. For each area (water, food, heat, power, medical and so on), write down honestly how many days you could manage today, and the next step to close the gap. That list becomes your shopping and training plan.
4. Print it and share it
Download the PDF version and keep a printed copy somewhere you can find it in the dark. A plan stored only on a phone or a website isn’t much help when the power is out.
Then share it. Preparedness works best when the people around you are prepared too.
5. Keep an eye on conditions
Each Sunday, the Readiness digest gives a plain-language look at world events that can reach your household, such as fuel prices, shipping delays or interest rates, and what you can do about them. It takes about five minutes to read.
Keep going
When the foundations are in place, work up through the tiers in the plan, browse the library, and follow the blog for new guides.