Plan the lawful, nonviolent safety of your home

Home safety preparedness is the lawful, nonviolent side: good locks, working exterior lighting, a way to see who's at the door, and the habits that keep you from opening it to the wrong person. After a disaster, it also includes the scams that follow — fake contractors, phishing, relief fraud. The plan is physical security and the awareness that protects you when routines are disrupted. This page covers the hardware, the habits, and the scam-awareness that keep a home safe before and after a disruption.

Harden the easy entry points

Start with the basics that prevent the most common break-ins: solid doors with deadbolts, a peephole or doorbell camera, working exterior lighting, and locks on windows and sliding doors. Reinforce the strike plate on entry doors with longer screws into the stud. These are cheap and they address how most break-ins actually happen — not picked locks, but kicked doors and open windows. A $5 longer screw and a $20 deadbolt is the entry-level hardening.

Lighting matters. Motion-sensor lights at entry points deter and reveal. Solar or battery options keep them working in an outage. A dark house during a neighborhood power loss is a target; a lit one is not. Keep a porch light on a timer when you're away. The lighting is both a deterrent and a safety feature — you can see who's at the door before you open it.

For an apartment, the same principles apply to your door and any accessible windows or balcony. A door security bar, a peephole, and a habit of not buzzing in people you don't know. Apartment building entry systems are only as safe as the last person who held the door. Know your neighbors in the building and know the building's security procedures.

Secure the windows, not just the doors. Window locks, pins for sliding windows, and dowels for sliding doors — these are the secondary entry points that get missed. A locked front door with an unlocked ground-floor window is not a secured home. Walk the perimeter and check every entry point, not just the obvious ones.

Consider what's visible from outside. A visible TV, a visible laptop, a visible tool chest — these are invitations. Close the blinds, move the valuables out of view, and don't advertise what's worth taking. The home-hardening plan includes not making the home a target in the first place, not just making it harder to enter.

Build the habits that keep you safe

Don't open the door to anyone you're not expecting — not a 'utility worker' without ID, not a 'neighbor' you don't recognize, not a 'delivery' you didn't order. In a disruption, scams and impersonation rise. Verify through a peephole or camera before opening. If someone claims to be official, ask for ID and call the agency to confirm — real workers expect this. The FTC tracks post-disaster scams for a reason.

Keep a habit of locked doors and closed windows even when you're home. A lot of break-ins are crimes of opportunity through an unlocked door or open ground-floor window. The habit is the security; the hardware is the backup. A locked door is the cheapest, most effective home-safety prep there is, and it only works if you do it.

Know your neighbors, at least by sight. In a disruption, the people who notice something wrong and the people you can ask for help are your neighbors. A block where people know each other is safer than one where they don't. Mutual aid starts with recognition. The family-and-neighbor page covers the community side of this in depth.

Plan for who you'd call if something's wrong. 911 for an emergency, the non-emergency line for a suspicious person, the neighborhood watch or a neighbor for a heads-up. Knowing the numbers before you need them is part of the plan. A phone with no non-emergency number programmed is a phone that's less useful when it matters.

Build the habit of situational awareness, not paranoia. Notice what's normal for your block so you can notice what's not. A stranger casing houses, a car that doesn't belong, a door ajar — these are the things a neighbor who's paying attention catches. The habit isn't fear; it's attention. The home-safety plan includes the awareness, not just the locks.

Plan for the scams that follow disasters

After a disaster, scams follow: fake contractors who take a deposit and vanish, phishing about relief assistance, people posing as inspectors. Don't pay upfront to anyone you haven't verified, don't give personal or financial info to someone who contacted you, and use the FEMA or your insurance's official channels, not a caller who says they're from there. The FTC and state attorneys general publish annual scam alerts for exactly this.

Verify before you trust. A contractor should be licensed and insured — check with your state's licensing board. An insurance adjuster should come through your insurer, not an unsolicited call. If someone's rushing you, that's the sign it's a scam. Legitimate help gives you time to verify. The pressure is the tell; the legitimate contractor wants the job and will wait.

Keep records of anyone you hire for disaster repairs: name, contact, license, and the contract. The documents prep supports this. The plan is: harden the home, build the habits, and verify before you trust anyone who shows up after a disaster. A contract and a license number are your protection; a handshake and a deposit is the scammer's opening.

Know the common scams: the FEMA impersonator who wants your info, the contractor who needs a deposit today and starts tomorrow, the 'inspector' who needs to come in. Each has a tell — urgency, upfront payment, unsolicited contact. The FTC has a scam-alert page; check it after any disaster in your area. The awareness is the defense.

The honest summary: home safety is the locks, the lighting, the habits, and the scam-awareness. The hardware is cheap; the habits are free; the awareness is ongoing. A hardened home with good habits and a scam-aware household is a safer home before and after a disaster. Don't let the safety plan be only the locks — the habits and the awareness are what make the locks work.

This is planning guidance, not emergency advice. In an emergency, call 911. See a mistake? Report it.

Keep planning the basics