Emergency Plan

Springville / Mapleton Utah Region

When something happens, we start with the people next door.

This is the Mapleton 14th Ward's version of the regional Emergency Preparation & Response Plan. It covers five levels — your family, your block, the ward, the stake, and the city — and it applies to everyone inside our ward boundaries, whether or not you're a member of the Church.

If it just happened

The first hour

  1. Take care of your own family first.Check for injuries and give first aid. Put shoes on — there will be glass.
  2. Check for hazards before you do anything else.Smell for natural gas. Look for water leaks. Shut a utility off only if you find a problem — otherwise leave it alone.
  3. Hang your signal marker where the street can see it.Front window or front door. Green, yellow, red, black, or white — see below.
  4. Check your neighbors — right, left, and across the street.If a house has no marker up, assume the family inside needs help.
  5. Report to your block captain at the neighborhood staging area.Family's physical condition, and the structural condition of your home. If you can't find your block captain, report to any ward leader at the ward command post.
  6. Turn on a battery radio.KBYU 89.1 FM carries emergency information for this area. 89.5 repeats the same signal.
  7. Reach your out-of-state contact within the first hour, then stay off the phone.Local lines will be overwhelmed. One call out, then leave the network for emergency traffic.

The door marker

Every household · members and neighbors alike

A card, flag, or ribbon in a front window or on the front door tells a block captain in three seconds what would otherwise take a knock, a wait, and a search. Keep your markers somewhere everyone in the house can find them in the dark — a hook by the front door or the closet next to it.

GreenAll is well here.
YellowWe need help, but it can wait.
RedImmediate help or care needed.
BlackThere has been a death in the house.
WhiteHome is vacant or nobody is home. A neighbor places this one.
No marker is itself a signal. If you pass a house with nothing in the window, do not assume they're fine — assume the family inside needs assistance and check on them.

Print a set of markers

What we're actually preparing for

Named in the regional plan

Earthquake

A rupture on the Wasatch fault. Utah records around 700 earthquakes a year, roughly thirteen of them above magnitude 3.0.

Fire, flash flood, or landslide

Major events on the benches and canyons east of Springville and Mapleton.

Chemical spill

A train derailment or truck crash releasing hazardous material near the corridor.

Extended power outage

A storm taking power down during freezing temperatures — heat, not light, is the problem.

Major wind storm

Straight-line canyon winds bringing down trees, lines, and outbuildings.

About this page & where the wording changed

Adapted from the Springville/Mapleton Utah Region Emergency Preparation & Response Plan (stake, ward, and family plans, with appendices). The substance is unchanged. Where the printed plan used callings and terms that have since been retired, this site uses the current equivalent:

  • “Home teachers” → ministering brothers and sisters
  • “High Priest Group Leader” → removed from the ward line of authority; elders quorum president now follows the bishopric
  • “Melchizedek Priesthood quorum lessons and home teaching messages” → elders quorum and Relief Society lessons, and ministering messages
  • “Homemaking meetings” → Relief Society activities
  • “Young Men, Young Women, and scouting” → youth classes and quorums

Radio frequencies, channel assignments, sector numbers, and the shelter procedure are reproduced as printed. Named contacts and call signs in the source document predate this website and are not republished here — ask the ward emergency preparedness specialist for current names.