Family Emergency Binder vs App: What Goes Where

Binder	No	Stays on the shelf. Leave it.
Phone	Partly	Only if it’s already in your hand. Don’t go back for it.
Fridge page	No	Stays in the kitchen.
In your head	Works	The meeting spot outside. Everyone knows it.

Should your family emergency plan be on paper or in an app?

Both, split by job. The binder holds what you’ll need in week two: insurance, IDs, bank records, copies of prescriptions. Your phone holds what someone needs in minute one: who to call, allergies, medications. One printed page goes on the fridge for whoever is in charge when you’re not.

The split isn’t our invention. Ready.gov’s kit page (checked November 2026) suggests keeping copies of insurance policies, identification and bank account records “saved electronically or in a waterproof, portable container.” Paper, plus a digital copy. The American Red Cross plan guide adds the parts that live in people’s heads: a meeting place right outside your home, a second one outside your neighborhood, and an out-of-area contact everyone can reach. And in a fire, nobody fetches anything: Ready.gov’s home fire page warns that a fire can become life-threatening in just two minutes.

Three copies, three jobs.

Binder for the paperwork. Phone for the first ten minutes. One page for the person you leave in charge.

01 · The phone halfA family emergency plan on your phone, in Family Ready

We built Family Ready, our family emergency plan app, for the minute-one half. It starts with an Emergency Card: six short questions for each person, and “I don’t know” counts as an answer. The card is saved on your iPhone and opens in a large-text Emergency Mode without internet, once you’re past the passcode. The binder stuff, like documents, money and insurance, has its own sections for later.

Emergency Card setup, question 4 of 6, asking about current medications, with an I don’t know option — Question 4 of 6: medications. “I don’t know” is allowed; fill it in later.

Emergency Mode showing a sample card with an offline copy in use, a Read aloud button and a call button — Emergency Mode: large text, offline copy, Read aloud, and a call button you tap yourself.

Plan tab with a review status and three sections: Today, If I Am Unavailable, and Later — The rest of the plan, split into Today, If I Am Unavailable, and Later.

02 · A scenarioA Tuesday night with two copies

This is the kind of evening we designed around. The family is made up; the evening probably isn’t.

Maya is six and allergic to tree nuts. Her parents are at a work dinner forty minutes away. The sitter is nineteen and great, and at 8:15 Maya’s lip starts to swell after a granola bar from a friend’s lunchbox.

The sitter doesn’t need the binder in the hall closet, with the mortgage papers and the passports. She needs the page on the fridge: who to call first, the allergy, where the medicine is kept, the address with the cross street. She follows it in the order it’s written.

At the hospital desk, Maya’s dad opens the card on his phone. When someone asks about medications, he taps Read aloud instead of guessing at a dose. The binder never leaves the closet, and nobody misses it.

03 · What goes whereHow to make a family emergency binder, and what to keep out of it

Fill the binder with what you’d need to rebuild after a fire or flood. Keep the fast stuff out of it, or at least not only in it: a binder that holds the only allergy list means someone has to find the binder first.

What goes in the binder, on the phone and on the fridge page
Item	Binder	Phone	Fridge page
Who to call first, plus an out-of-area contact	Copy	Yes	Yes
Allergies and current medications, per person	Copy	Yes	Yes
Two meeting places: outside the house, outside the neighborhood	Yes	Yes	Yes
Your address and nearest cross street	–	–	Yes
Insurance policies (copies)	Yes	Scan	–
IDs and birth certificates (copies)	Yes	Scan	–
Bank account records	Yes	Scan	–
Prescription copies and the pharmacy’s number	Yes	Yes	–
Pet: vet, food, medicines	Yes	Yes	Yes
Kit checklist, with the date you last checked it	Yes	Yes	–

The binder in five steps

Get a one-inch binder, sheet protectors and a waterproof box or bag to keep it in.
Tab it: People, Insurance, IDs, Money, Home, Pets.
File copies, not originals. Originals belong in a safe or a safe-deposit box.
Scan or photograph every page, so a soaked binder isn’t your only copy.
Write today’s date on the cover and pick a review date six or twelve months out.

04 · Honest limitsWhere the phone half falls short

Phones die, crack and get left in cars. That’s the case for the fridge page, and for the backup battery on Ready.gov’s kit list.
Emergency Mode opens after your passcode, not from the Lock Screen. If you want a stranger to see allergies on a locked phone, also set up Apple’s Medical ID with Show When Locked on.
Family Ready never calls or texts anyone by itself. You tap to call. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.
It holds what you type. It can’t know the medication list changed, so pick a review every 3, 6 or 12 months.
The card, the plan, the kit checklist and the Emergency Snapshot PDF are free. Trusted-person invitations, household sync, reminders and extra printable packs are in the paid Plus subscription.

05 · Not for everyoneWhen a binder and one printed page are enough

Nobody else ever looks after your kids, you keep Medical ID current, and the whole family’s list fits on one sheet. Print it and you’re done.
Your household is all Android. Family Ready is iPhone and iPad only.
You want alerts sent for you after a fall or a crash. That’s a medical alert service, not a plan.

06 · Try itSplit your own plan: binder, phone, fridge

Tick who lives with you. The three lists update as you go, and you can print them.

Paper or App?Wrong Question.