Preparation and Survival Task #2 Contact Information, Emergency Numbers and Alert Flow; IRP and ERP.

Unless you plan on being totally alone in an emergency there are others who are on your “A-Team”.

A-TEAM refers to the people you will be with during an emergency/disaster. In Special Forces, the core operational element is the A-Team. For many of us that means our family. For others, it could be a group of people we’ve coordinated with beforehand (more on that shortly). In an emergency it could also be the people we’re trapped with. I use this term instead of constantly referring to family/team/friends.

Do you have all the key information about those people? Do you have their phone number memorized or written down in case you aren’t able to access the address book in your cell phone?

Do you have an Out of Area Contact and an Immediate Rally Point and Emergency Rally Point?

IRP stands for Immediate Rally Point. This is a point outside of your home/work/school where your team can gather if they have to evacuate for some reason. The most likely reason for this would be if there was a fire. It needs to be a place that’s easily identifiable and not far from the home/work/school and everyone can find in the dark.

It’s also the place where your A-Team will rendezvous if they can’t go into the home/work/school for whatever reason, but need to assemble from other locations, such as school and/or work.