Evacuation Procedures?

[DBug]

The Weather Emergencies thread got me thinking -- I have yet to plan out an evacuation procedure. We very rarely have tornadoes or earthquakes so I'm not as worried about having a shelter, but I should have a procedure to get all of the kids out in case of fire. I've done facility evacuation procedures where there were lots of staff on hand to carry kids and supplies, but I'm not sure how I would go about getting 6 toddlers out of the house on my own. If they're awake, it's probably no big deal. But I am worried what would happen if they were all asleep. Generally there are 3 sleeping on the main floor and 3 upstairs in PNP's.

Anybody have an evacuation procedure they'd like to share?

[missnikki]

When I worked at a center with infants, the cribs had wheels for this exact purpose. Maybe find pnp's with wheels and pack' em up, roll 'em out. Walking age- get a rope with a big knot in it every 2 feet or so. Show the kids how to grab one of the knots and hold on, that's how we got them to walk in a straight line. If you walk them to the park like that now and then, they'll get the hint.

[MyAngels]

We do tornado and fire drills once a month, on the first Tuesday of the month when they test the tornado sirens. I use a long rope with loops every two feet that the kids grab on to to walk them outside to our predetermined meeting spot. I've done the fire drills during nap to make sure it can be done safely. Sometimes we play a game with our "pretend" fire (it's just a picture of fire on poster board) - I put the fire somewhere in the house and then we practice how we're going to get out without going near the fire. It's pretty fun for the kids.

I like the idea of the pnp with wheels, especially when I have younger ones. Thanks for sharing!

[DBug]

I guess I'll have to look into getting or making a walking rope then. With our front door & porch, a pnp just wouldn't roll out very well.

How do the kids react with being woken up from a nap to do a drill? And do you do it in the middle of naptime or wait until close to when they would normally wake up anyway?

[MyAngels]

When we do the nap drill I either do it pretty close to the beginning (before they are asleep) or close to the end. They actually do pretty well overall, even with being awakened. I always figure you can't pick a time for an emergency so it's better to be prepared. We also periodically practice the stop drop and roll (or the "stop dropping rolls" as one of my little ones used to say ).