Emergency guides
Plain language, steps first, sources named. Every one of these lives in the NothingLoads app too — where they work with no signal at all.
- How long is fridge food safe without power?
The 4-hour fridge rule and the 24/48-hour freezer rule, what to keep closed, and what to throw out — from federal guidance, in plain language. - How to make questionable water safe to drink
Boiling times and the exact bleach ratio (8 drops per gallon) for emergency water disinfection, from EPA guidance. - The first hour of a power outage
A calm first-hour checklist: confirm the outage, report it, protect food and electronics, and set the house up for a longer night. - You smell gas. Here's the order of operations.
Rotten-egg smell at 3 AM: get everyone out without touching a single switch, then call 911 and the gas company from outside. - The CO alarm is going off. Believe it.
Carbon monoxide is invisible and odorless. When the alarm sounds: everyone out to fresh air, call 911, and don't go back in until it's cleared. - The 20-minute family emergency plan
Two rally points, one out-of-area contact, utility shutoffs, and a paper card in every wallet — the plan that actually gets used, from Ready.gov guidance. - Tornado warning. Where you go, right now.
Warning means take shelter now: lowest floor, smallest interior room, away from windows — plus the mobile-home and car rules people get wrong. - Texts won't send. Here's what still works.
Why phones fail in disasters (congestion, not damage), the text-don't-call rule, Wi-Fi calling, satellite SOS, and how to stretch a battery for days. - The emergency kit checklist
The supplies that earn their shelf space: water math, three days of food, light, first aid, meds, cash, and the things people forget — from Red Cross guidance. - Generator safety, in plain language
20 feet from the house, never in a garage, never plugged into a wall outlet. The CO and backfeed rules that matter, from NFPA and Red Cross guidance. - Hurricane inbound. The 24-hour checklist.
Evacuation decisions, water, power, fuel, and the storm-surge rule — what to do in the last day before landfall, from NWS and Red Cross guidance. - Winter outage. Stay warm without getting killed.
One-room heating, the deadly heat sources to never use indoors, and the pipe-freeze rules — from NWS and Red Cross winter guidance. - Turn around. The water is lying to you.
Why six inches knocks you down and a foot floats a car, what to do when water enters the house, and the after-flood dangers — from NWS and Red Cross guidance. - Two minutes. Two ways out. One meeting spot.
A house fire gives you about two minutes. Two exits per room, crawl low, close doors, meet outside, never go back — from NFPA and Red Cross guidance. - Smoke outside. Build one clean room.
When the AQI spikes: seal one room, filter its air, wear N95 outside, and know whose lungs are at risk — from AirNow and Red Cross guidance. - Drop. Cover. Hold on.
What to actually do when the shaking starts — inside, in bed, driving — why doorways are a myth, and the aftershock rules, from ShakeOut and Red Cross guidance.
Before you lose signal
Save the whole kit to your phone.
This page needs the internet. The NothingLoads app doesn't — all 28 guides, offline search, and your family's own emergency plan live on the phone itself and work in Airplane Mode. Life-safety guides are free for everyone, forever.
Free · about 1 MB · iPhone & iPad · no account · no tracking