Audit / 01
The 90-minute household risk audit.
You do not need a perfect disaster plan to make progress. You need a short, honest look at which interruption would create the most trouble in your home.
Preparedness advice often begins with a list of supplies. Lists are easy to expand and hard to prioritize. FEMA’s 2024 National Household Survey shows why a more focused approach helps: 67 percent of adults reported having emergency supplies, but only 58 percent reported having an emergency plan and 27 percent reported taking part in an emergency drill. Having objects is different from knowing what will happen when a service stops.
What the audit is trying to find
The goal is not to predict the next disaster. It is to identify a short interruption that would expose a weak link in your household. That could be a medication that needs refrigeration, a child-care handoff that depends on a dead phone, a water pump that needs electricity, or a work shift that leaves no one available to collect a pet.
Use three filters for each possible interruption:
- Probability: how plausible is this interruption where you live?
- Consequence: if it happens, what becomes unsafe or impossible?
- Recovery friction: how long would it take and cost to get back to normal?
You are looking for the issue with a high combined score, especially when a small change can reduce it.
The 90-minute process
Minutes 0–15: make a household map
Write down the people, animals, equipment and routines that must keep working. Include prescription medicines, mobility devices, infant feeding, refrigeration, water access, transportation, work communication and any person who may be alone during a disruption. This list is more useful than a generic “family” label because it names the dependencies a plan has to support.
Minutes 15–35: list interruptions, not disasters
Write ten interruptions in plain language: “power off for 12 hours,” “cell service unreliable,” “water notice,” “one adult cannot drive,” or “road home is blocked.” Add local hazards from your county emergency-management office and seasonal guidance from NOAA. Ready.gov’s basic planning framework also asks households to consider alerts, shelter, evacuation and communication; use those as prompts rather than as a checklist to copy.
Minutes 35–55: score the three highest
Give each interruption a score from one to five for probability, consequence and recovery friction. The numbers are a comparison tool, not a forecast. A lower-probability event can still rise to the top if its consequence is immediate and your household has no substitute.
| Interruption | Probability | Consequence | Friction | Question |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Power loss | 4 | 4 | 4 | What stops after the phone battery? |
| Water notice | 2 | 5 | 3 | How will you obtain and treat water? |
| Missed pickup | 3 | 4 | 4 | Who is the second safe contact? |
Minutes 55–75: find the cheapest weak link
Look for a fix that reduces more than one risk. A printed contact card helps when a phone is lost or uncharged. A labeled water container supports both a water notice and a short outage. A written medication list helps a caregiver, a shelter intake worker and a pharmacy. The best first fix is often an instruction or a rehearsal rather than a purchase.
Minutes 75–90: run a small test
Choose one safe, reversible test. Turn off the Wi-Fi router and use your backup communication method for ten minutes. Put the household contact card where an overnight guest can find it. Pack the refrigerated medication plan into a small insulated bag without placing medicine inside. Stop if the test could create a health or fire hazard, and follow official instructions for any active emergency.
Write the next action in one sentence
Finish with a sentence that has an owner and a date: “Jordan will put the contact card beside the keys by Friday,” or “We will ask the pharmacy how to handle a 24-hour power loss before the next refill.” Revisit the audit when your household, season or local risk changes.