How Families Can Prepare for Emergencies

Disasters often strike quickly and without warning. They are frightening for adults, and can be traumatic for children. Your family may have to leave home and change your daily routine. Be prepared to give your children guidance that will help reduce their fears.

Preparedness starts with each one of us taking steps to stay safe before, during, and after disasters or emergencies. By setting aside the time and resources to be prepared at home, you can help keep you family safer – and help keep emergency responders safer, too! The Red Cross has many resources to help youth and their grown-ups be better prepared at home.

Talking to Your Children About Disasters

How to Talk About Disasters in Advance

Prepare Yourself with Knowledge

Find out which disasters are most common where you live, then visit our emergency resource library for specific tips on what to do and discuss. For example, if you live in an earthquake-prone area, your child should be taught to DROP, COVER and HOLD ON.

Next, check at your children’s schools, day care, or other locations where they regularly spend time. Find out what their emergency plans are so that you can reinforce them at home.

Share What You’ve Learned

Talk about emergency preparation with your family so that everyone knows what to do. Discussing ahead of time helps reduce fear, particularly for younger children.

Involve your entire family in preparation activities, such as assembling a survival kit. Children can feel reassured knowing there’s a plan in place.

How to Guide Your Children During a Disaster

Your Child’s Response May Be Shaped By Yours

Feelings of fear are healthy and natural, but in a disaster, your children will be looking to you for clues on how to act:

If you show alarm, your child may become more scared, seeing your fear as proof that the danger is real.
If you seem overcome with loss, your child may feel their losses more strongly.
If you are able to demonstrate that you feel calm and in control, your child may feel more confident and better able to cope.

A Child Who Feels Afraid Is Afraid

Your child may experience the emergency as being bigger than it actually is. Children's fears can be increased by their imagination, and you should take these feelings seriously. Your words and actions can provide reassurance; be sure to present a realistic picture that is both honest and manageable.

How to Help Your Child After a Disaster

What to Expect

Children depend on familiar routines: wake up, eat breakfast, go to school, play with friends. When an emergency interrupts this routine, they may become anxious, confused, or frightened. These feelings may be expressed in a variety of ways: from clinginess to withdrawal; increased shyness to aggressiveness. Your child may return to previously outgrown behaviors such as thumb-sucking or carrying a cuddly toy.

What to Do

When the danger has passed, concentrate on your child's emotional needs by asking what's on his or her mind. Having children participate in your family's recovery activities will help them feel that life will soon return to "normal."

During their recovery, prevent young children from viewing television news reports of the event. The images can be very upsetting, particularly if the child is too young to realize they are watching repeated footage and not a new emergency.

Click here to learn more about how to build resilience in children through coping skills.

Additional Resources for Youth

The Red Cross offers youth preparedness courses and programs to help children develop the skills and confidence they may need in an emergency. We work closely with schools, scout groups, and youth-serving organizations to raise awareness of disaster risk and build resilience among young people. Our age-appropriate preparedness materials educate youth with engaging activities and easy action steps.

Become a Preparedness Champion!

Become a Preparedness Champion by learning how to stay safe and healthy with the American Red Cross! Through this online learning resource, you'll learn about the American Red Cross, proper hand washing techniques, coping skills and home fire safety. Perfect for grades 3-5!

Click here to get started »

Online Hazard Practice Activities

If you’re in in grades 3-5, are you ready for an additional emergency preparedness training challenge? Learn how to prepare for emergencies with fun activities.

Get Started »

Join a Red Cross Youth Club

25% of Red Cross volunteers are age 24 or younger. Being young is no barrier to being able to help people in need, in your community and around the world! Visit redcrossyouth.org to learn more about our many youth programs.

Learn More >>

Participate in the Youth Action Campaign

The Red Cross IHL Youth Action Campaign empowers young people, ages 13-24, to learn about International Humanitarian Law (IHL)—the body of law that governs armed conflict.

Learn More >>

Mobile Apps and Voice-Enabled Skills for Parents and Kids

Teach and reinforce important safety skills in way that’s fun and informative.

Pedro's Fire Challenge

Swim App

Emergency App

First Aid App

Play Pedro’s Fire Safety Challenge. Pedro’s Fire Challenge is a fun and engaging interactive game created by the Red Cross for children ages 4-8 years old that teaches age-appropriate skills for handling a home fire emergency and other stressful situations. Pedro the penguin guides children through a set of activities on topics such as home fire safety, coping skills, and good old-fashioned penguin fun! At the end of the challenge, children earn a fire safety badge.

enable this skill on Alexa

Or say “Alexa, enable Pedro's Fire Challenge by American Red Cross”