Preparing Your RV For Emergencies

While your RV is great for camping and traveling to places you’ve never been, it has an additional use: a vehicle and accommodations in case of a serious emergency. Whether it’s a house fire, a wildfire, a severe storm, or a flood, your RV can serve as a way to get you to safety, but only if you’ve prepared it.

Yes, it’s scary to think about something going wrong, but it’s going to take a lot of stress off your plate if you plan for problems now so that you have solutions ready to go. Here are our tips on how to get your RV ready for an emergency.

1. Make Plans

It’s helpful to sit down with your family to set up plans and create lists of what to pack and what needs to be done. For example, delegating responsibilities such as collecting valuables and paperwork, putting pets in crates, gathering up necessary medications, and grabbing go-bags will help to reduce the burden. Little kids can be charged with helping each other to get their things and get out as soon as possible, while teens and adults can take care of the bigger tasks.

Determine some great locations where you could park your RV in an emergency. Maybe a friend in a city nearby has a driveway you can use, or there’s a good parking lot or campground you know of that won’t be too busy. If you know you’re going to need a campsite, book it as soon as possible to beat demand.

2. Establish Contacts

List out all of the people you need to contact in a crisis, including doctors, therapists, neighbors, friends, family members, managers, and insurance companies. Determine which contacts can be used to help you by sending out rescue crews if you don’t get in touch with them. Provide detailed information to every contact about your traveling group and their needs, with email addresses and phone numbers ready.

3. Build an Emergency Kit

Finally, it’s helpful to create an emergency kit that can be relied upon for many of the supplies you might need, such as: 

• Sufficient water & non-perishable food items for a week
• Propane tanks
• Hand-crank or battery-operated radio
• Extra batteries
• Gasoline
• Fire extinguishers
• Signal flares
• RV toolkit
• Warm clothing and waterproof ponchos
• Blankets
• Duct tape
• Matches or a firestarter
• Work gloves
• First-aid kit
• N-95 masks

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