Street
Know the people on your block
A neighborhood protection plan, in the useful sense, is a list of who needs a knock and who can run a generator. Keep it kind, local, and boring.
The people on your street are your first responders for the first hours. Know who lives where, who has medical skills, who has a generator, who cannot leave without help.
Invite, don’t lecture. A short porch conversation beats a manifesto. Offer to share a printed map of shutoffs and meeting points.
Keep a private list: names, unit numbers, pets, mobility needs, languages. Do not post that list online.
Agree on a simple check-in: porch light on means “we are home and okay”; a ribbon on the mailbox can mean “we evacuated.” Choose what your street will actually remember.
CERT and Citizen Corps training, through local emergency management, is the right public channel for neighborhood teams.
This is about looking after each other in heat, flood, fire, and outage — not about forming a militia or practicing tactics.