Make a Household Contact Plan for Lost Signal

Agree on the plan together

Choose a local contact and an out-of-area contact who agree to be part of the plan. Write their names and usable contact methods down. Decide on meeting options that suit the people involved and the places you normally spend time.

Canada’s emergency planning guide includes meeting places, contacts and household needs. FEMA’s communication card also provides spaces for contacts and meeting locations. Treat those choices as a discussion with your household, not a list one person fills out without telling the others.

Write the details you would otherwise look up

• People: the contact methods everyone should try and the out-of-area person who can relay an update.
• Places: your agreed meeting options, with a plain description that does not require opening a map link.
• Responsibilities: school or care arrangements, who has agreed to help, and where to find the complete household plan.
• Review: the date the details were checked and who holds the current copy.

A place is an option only when it is safe and consistent with current local instructions. An old card is not an evacuation order, and a message marked “sent” is not proof that the other person received it.

Keep a copy that needs no login

Print the free contact practice card or copy its prompts onto paper. It is an original, simple worksheet, not a replacement for a full emergency plan. No account or email address is required to open it.

Store completed copies privately and make them available to the people who need them. Do not put addresses, access codes or private contact details into a public message board. The blank worksheet asks for no online submission and has no form that sends your answers.

Try a short rehearsal

1. Find it. Ask each person where their copy is. Can they reach it without signing into a shared account?
2. Explain it. Ask what they would try if the group chat did not work. Compare answers and resolve differences now.
3. Check it. With contacts’ agreement, confirm the numbers and plans through your usual channels. Do not place test calls to emergency services.

Canadian communications guidance notes that short non-voice messages may work when voice service is disrupted. They still depend on a functioning service and delivery; agree on a fallback if no response arrives.

Verify a surprising request

During a disruption, an unexpected message might ask you to move, pay or share a code. Pause and check it through a known contact route instead of trusting the display name alone. The related Rogue AI “Protect Me” planning checklist explores digital safety habits; it does not provide a device shield or guarantee a message is genuine.

Revisit the plan after a number, household routine or care arrangement changes. A short, shared plan that people can locate is more useful than a detailed document nobody can open.