Hours 1 to 24

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Goal: stabilize. You're safe from the first impact; now you organize the household to hold out several days without help.

Assign the roles (roles table below). Everyone knows their job and who backs them up.
Take the first inventory and write it in the Daily Log: gallons of water, power station percentage, number of batteries, days of food, medicines per person.
Set up the news routine (see below) and the on-call phone.
Eat perishables first: refrigerator in the first hours, then the freezer, and the pantry last (chapter 22).
Control the temperature. In heat: close curtains on the sunny side, ventilate at night, wet clothing. In cold: everyone in one room, layers of clothing, sleeping bags. Never combustion heaters indoors (chapter 9 and chapter 10).
Set up the emergency toilet if there's no water or the sewer may be damaged (chapter 21).
Sleep in shifts. One adult awake with the NOAA radio and the on-call phone; shifts of 3 to 4 hours at night.

Consumption rules for this phase

Consumption rules for this phase
Resource	Rule
Water	1 gal (3.8 L) per person per day (drinking and minimal hygiene), plus water for your pets according to their weight (~0.2 gal / 0.75 L per day for a 15 lb / 7 kg dog). Use tap water first if it's still safe and the water you filled in the tub; sealed bottled water stays in reserve.
Power	NOAA radio always on in alert mode. Only one lamp on per occupied room. Phones in battery-saver mode, minimum brightness, no videos.
Food	Refrigerator first (if it stayed closed and cold), then the freezer. Don't touch the long-life pantry if there are still safe perishables.
Communications	News every hour, on the hour. Text the out-of-state contact at the start and end of the day.

The communications routine for the whole emergency

A fixed routine saves battery, avoids the anxiety of "checking all the time," and lets people outside know when they'll be heard. Use it the same way in every phase; only the frequency changes. Chapter 19 details channels and equipment.

The communications routine for the whole emergency
Medium	Hours 0–24	Hours 24–72	Day 4 onward
NOAA radio	On in alert mode all the time	Same	Same
AM/FM radio news	Every hour, on the hour, 10 min	Every 3 hours during the day, on the hour	3 times a day: 7:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m., and 7:00 p.m.
FRS/GMRS radios	On if anyone from the household is out	Listen on the hour, 5 min (:00 to :05), on the agreed channel	Same, or at times agreed with neighbors
On-call phone	One on; the others in battery-saver mode	One on in shifts; the others off	Same
Text to the out-of-state contact	At the start and every night	Morning and night	Once a day, same time