Preparing with children and pets

Children cope better with difficult situations when they are prepared. Anyone who knows what will happen, has a small task and carries something familiar feels less helpless. Calm, honest explanations help more than silence – children sense anyway when adults are worried, and otherwise fill the gaps with their own, often worse, ideas.

Pets are often forgotten in emergency plans. That is dangerous because people put themselves at risk for them: they stay in the house too long because the cat is hiding, or return to a closed area to fetch the dog. A solution for the animals therefore belongs in the family plan from the start.

Talk at a calm moment and in words that suit the child's age. For small children this is often enough: “Sometimes something happens and you have to leave the house quickly. We have a plan, and you know where we meet.” Older children can understand more and take on more, such as packing their own bag or writing their own contact card.

Teach children early how to call the emergency number and what to say: who they are, where they are and what has happened. Practise it as a role play with a switched-off phone, not with a real call. Every child should carry a card with the parents' names, phone numbers, the contact person and the meeting point – ideally tucked away so that strangers cannot read it at a glance.

Find out how the school and childcare proceed in an emergency and who is allowed to pick up the children. Register additional trusted people there in case you cannot get through yourself, and tell your child who might come.

For children, the supplies and go bag get things that give them comfort: a cuddly toy, a book, a small game, familiar snacks and spare clothes that fit. For babies, food, bottles, nappies and warmth belong in it. Which food and which medication suit your child is something to discuss with your paediatrician or midwife.

For pets you pack a separate kit: food and water for several days, bowls, a lead or carrier, any medication, the vaccination record and a current photo of the animal. A collar with contact details and, where this is usual, a microchip with up-to-date registration help reunite you with a lost animal. Important: the chip itself only carries a number – whether it helps depends on your contact details in the registration being correct.

Children and animals are never left alone in a parked car. Even in mild weather the sun can make the inside very hot very quickly, even with a window open a crack. For children and animals that can be life-threatening.

Never go back into a danger zone to fetch an animal. Take pets along early when an evacuation is looming, and tell the rescue services if an animal did have to stay behind. Stressed animals may bite or run off; keep them on a lead or in the carrier in unfamiliar surroundings, and do not leave children alone with an agitated animal.

Not all emergency shelters accept animals, and the rules differ by country and municipality. So find out beforehand where your animal could stay: with relatives or friends outside the region, in pet-friendly accommodation or at a boarding kennel or cattery. Your municipality and local animal welfare organisations can give information.

Livestock and large animals such as horses need their own preparedness plans and official guidance. They require far more lead time, transport and destinations than can be organised in an acute situation.