Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge
Eagle Required
Emergency Preparedness
Merit Badge
Scouting America Merit Badge Hub
Scouting America
Merit Badge Hub
Requirement Updates 2026
This Merit Badge’s Requirements have recently been updated in 2025 Scouting America Requirements (33216). Please read more about “Requirements” on the Merit Badge Hub homepage. The previous version of the Merit Badge requirements can be found in Scoutbook.
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Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge Overview
Scouts are often called upon to help because they know first aid and they know about the discipline and planning needed to react to an emergency situation. Earning this merit badge helps a Scout to be prepared by learning the actions that can be helpful and needed before, during, and after an emergency.
Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge Requirements
The previous version of the Merit Badge requirements can be found in Scoutbook
The requirements will be fed dynamically using the scout book integration
NOTE: The official merit badge pamphlets are now free and downloadable HERE or can be purchased at the Scout Shop.
1.
Emergency Situations. Do the following:
- (a)
Discuss with your counselor the aspects of emergency preparedness and include in your discussion the kinds of questions that are important to ask yourself as you consider each of these: prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery.
Resource: 5 Steps of Disaster Risk Management (video) - (b) Using a chart, spreadsheet, or another method approved by your counselor, demonstrate your understanding of each aspect of emergency preparedness listed in requirement 1(a) (prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery) for 10 emergency situations from the list below. Discuss your findings with your counselor.
- (1)
Home stovetop or oven fire
Resource: How to Put Out a Stovetop Fire (video) - (2)
Home flammable liquid fire
Resource: Flammable Liquids (video) - (3)
Gas leak in or near a home or with outside cooking
Resources: What to Do If You Smell Gas (video)
How to Turn Off Main Gas Valve (video) - (4)
Food poisoning
Resources: Stomach Flu and Food Poisoning (video)
Safe Food Handling (video)
How to Know If You Have Food Poisoning (video) - (5)
Automobile crash
Resource: Responding to a Car Crash (video) - (6)
Vehicle stalled in the desert
Resource: A Desert Survival Experience (video) - (7)
Vehicle trapped in a blizzard
Resource: How to Survive A Car Stranding in Winter (video) - (8)
Backcountry injury
Resource: Backpacking First Aid (What To Carry + Foot Care, Snakes, Poison Plants, Hypothermia, etc) (video) - (9)
Boating or water accident
Resource: Preventing and Managing Boating Accidents (website) - (10)
Toxic chemical spills and releases
Resources: Chemical Spill Preparedness (video)
Household Chemical Emergencies (website) - (11)
Nuclear power plant emergency
Resource: How to Stay Safe in a Nuclear Emergency (video) - (12)
Fire or explosion in a public place
Resources: How to Survive a Building Explosion (video)
How to Survive a Burning High-Rise (video) - (13)
Violence in a public place
Resource: A Navy SEAL Reveals How to Survive an Active Shooter (video) - (14)
Wildland fire
Resource: If You Are Trapped by a Wildfire (video) - (15)
Avalanche (snowslide or rockslide)
Resources: Survive an Avalanche (video)
How to Survive a Landslide (video) - (16)
Earthquake
Resource: 10 Ways to Survive an Earthquake (video) - (17)
Tsunami
Resource: How to Survive a Tsunami (video) - (18)
Major flooding or a flash flood with water outage
Resource: How to Survive a Flood (video) - (19)
Hurricane with power outage
Resource: How to Survive a Hurricane (video) - (20)
Tornado
Resource: How to Survive a Tornado (video) - (21)
Lightning storm.
Resources: What Happens When You Are Struck by Lightning (video)
Backcountry Lightning Safety (website)
2.
Planning for Family Emergencies. Do the following:
- (a)
At a family meeting, discuss the situations on the chart you created for requirement 1(b) and make emergency plans for sheltering-in-place and for evacuation of your home. Discuss your family meeting and plans with your counselor.
Resources: How to Shelter in Place (video)
How to Evacuate From Wildfires (video) - (b) Develop and practice a plan of escape for your family in case of fire in your home. Draw a floor plan with escape routes and a map with a safe meeting place. Discuss your family's home escape plan with your counselor.
- (c)
Using a checklist in the Emergency Preparedness merit badge pamphlet or one approved by your counselor, prepare or inspect a family disaster kit for sheltering-in-place and for evacuation of your home. Review the needs and uses of the items in a kit with your counselor.
Resources: Checklist for Sheltering in Place (PDF)
Checklist for Evacuation (PDF)
Build a Kit (website)
3.
Preventing Accidents and Emergencies. Do ONE of the following:
- (a)
Using a home safety checklist included in the Emergency Preparedness merit badge pamphlet or one approved by your counselor, inspect a home (or a similar building near where you live or at a camp) for safety hazards with the help of an adult. Present your completed checklist to and discuss your findings with your counselor.
Resource: Checklists Home Safety (PDF) - (b)
Develop emergency prevention plans for five family activities outside the home, as approved by your counselor. (Examples are taking a picnic to a park, seeing a movie, attending a worship service, an outing at a beach, traveling to visit a relative, or attending a ball game or concert.) Each plan should include an analysis of possible hazards, proposals to prevent, protect from, mitigate, respond to, and recover from emergencies, and the reasons for the actions that you propose.
Resource: Building an Emergency Kit (video)
4.
Dangerous Situations. Show how you could save a person from the following dangerous situations without putting yourself in danger:
- (a)
Live household electric wire
Resource: Rescue and First Aid for Electric Shock (video) - (b)
A structure filled with carbon monoxide
Resource: Rescue from CO Poisoning (video) - (c)
Clothes on fire
Resource: Stop. Drop. Roll. Get Low and Go (video) - (d)
Drowning, using nonswimming rescues (including accidents on ice).
Resources: Reach, Throw, Row, but Don't Go! (video)
A Patrol Performs An Ice Rescue (video)
5.
Signaling for Help. Do the following:
- (a)
Show three ways of attracting and communicating with rescue aircraft or drones.
Resource: Ground to Air Signals (video) - (b)
Show ways to attract the attention of searchers on the ground if you are lost in the wilderness.
Resource: Ways to Signal for Help in the Wilderness (video) - (c)
Show ways to attract the attention of searchers on the water if you are stranded with a capsized or disabled motorboat or sailboat.
Resources: Signaling Devices for a Water Rescue (video)
Water Rescue Signaling (video)
How does an EPIRB work? (video)
PLB and EPIRB Emergency Beacons (video)
6.
Moving an Injured Person. With another person, show two good ways to transport an injured person out of a remote area using improvised stretchers to conserve the energy of rescuers while ensuring the well-being and protection of the injured person.
Resource: Improvised Stretchers (video)
Resource: Improvised Stretchers (video)
7.
National Incident Management System (NIMS) and Incident Command System (ICS). Do the following:
- (a)
Describe the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the local Incident Command System (ICS).
Resources: NIMS (video)
ICS (video) - (b) Find out how your community and its leaders work to manage and to train for disasters. Discuss this information with your counselor.
- (c) Discuss how a Scout troop can help in an emergency situation using ICS.
8.
Emergency Service. Do the following:
- (a)
Discuss with your counselor the duties that a Scout troop should be prepared to do, the training they need, and the safety precautions they should take for the following emergency services:
Resource: Agency Cooperation in an ICS (video) - (1)
Crowd and traffic control
Resource: Guidelines for Managing Crowds (website) - (2)
Messenger service during an incident
Resource: Social Media Messaging for Natural Disasters (website) - (3)
Collection and distribution services
Resource: Food Bank (video) - (4)
Group feeding, shelter, and sanitation.
Resource: Feeding LA Wildfire Evacuees (video) - (b) Prepare a written plan for mobilizing your troop when needed to do emergency service. If your troop already has a mobilization plan, present the plan to your counselor and tell your part in making the plan work.
- (c)
Using a checklist in the Emergency Preparedness merit badge pamphlet or one approved by your counselor, prepare or inspect a personal emergency service pack for a mobilization call. Explain the needs and uses of the contents to your counselor.
Resources: Checklist for Go Bag (PDF)
Family and Personal Emergency Kits (website) - (d)
Take part in an emergency service project, either a real one or a practice exercise, with a Scouting troop or a community agency or at Scout camp or at a school. Review what you learned and practiced with your counselor.
Resource: Emergency Procedures at Camp (video)
9.
First Aid Merit Badge. Earn the First Aid merit badge.
10.
Careers. Do ONE of the following:
- (a)
Interview an emergency services coordinator or a civil servant about their work in disaster management. Learn about how they chose this career and about their duties. Discuss what you learned with your counselor and whether you might be interested in this career.
Resource: NYC Emergency Management Interns (video) - (b)
Identify three career opportunities that would use skills and knowledge in emergency services. Pick one and research the training, education, certification requirements, experience, and expenses associated with entering the field. Research the prospects for employment, starting salary, advancement opportunities, and career goals associated with this career. Discuss what you learned with your counselor and whether you might be interested in this career.
Resource: Explore a Career in Disaster and Emergency Management (video) - (c)
Identify how you might use the skills and knowledge in the field of emergency preparedness to pursue a personal hobby and/or healthy lifestyle. Research the additional training required, expenses, and affiliation with organizations that would help you maximize the enjoyment and benefit you might gain from it. Discuss what you learned with your counselor and share what short-term and long-term goals you might have if you pursued this.
Resource: Teen CERT Team Training (video)
Get the Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge Pamphlet
Merit Badge Pamphlets are now free and publicly available. Note: Always check www.scouting.org/skills/merit-badges/all/ for the latest requirements.
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Discover more about "Emergency Preparedness"
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says when preparing for an emergency situation, start with the basics of survival: clean water, food, clean air and warmth.
The following lists will help you Be Prepared for times of emergency.
Family Emergency Kit
If you must evacuate your home with little notice …
Three-day supply of water
Nonperishable foods (including pet food) and a nonelectric can opener
Eating utensils
Special foods for any dietary restrictions, including baby foods
Family first-aid kit
Battery- or cranked-powered radio
Flashlight
Extra batteries (rotate these out regularly so they don’t go stale in your closet)
Matches in waterproof container
Blanket or sleeping bag for each family member
Extra clothing
Face masks for air filtering
Soap, wipes, antibacterial gel
Toilet paper
Copies of important family documents in waterproof containers
Signal whistle
Local maps
Cash
Major Disaster Preparedness Items
If you can safely stay in your home during an emergency …
Fire extinguisher
Tool kit (with ax, shovel, broom, screwdriver, pliers, hammer, coil of rope, coil of bailing wire, duct tape, razor blades, adjustable wrench for turning off gas or water)
Chart showing location of shutoff valves in your home, including the main electrical switch
Portable fire escape ladder for homes or buildings of more than one floor
Portable butane or charcoal stove (to be used outdoors away from the garage)
Gloves and cloths for cleaning up dangerous spills
Covered containers for storing waste
Garden hose kept near an outside faucet
Personal Emergency Service Pack
If you and your troop are called out to serve during an emergency …
Poncho or raincoat with hood
Change or underwear and socks
Small bag with toiletries
Sleeping bag and waterproof ground cloth
Map of area where you’re going
50 feet of No. 5 sash cord
Hand ax, folding saw or pocketknife
Water treatment equipment
Cook kit and canteen
Flashlight
Battery-powered radio
Extra batteries
Hard hart
Personal first-aid kit
Matches in waterproof container
Emergency ration
Pencil and small notebook
Handkerchief
Compass and map of the area (and GPS if you have one, with extra batteries)
Watch
Facial tissues
Work gloves
Face masks for air filtering
In case you missed it, The World Games — an international, multisport event consisting of sports that aren’t in the Olympics – concluded yesterday in Birmingham, Ala.
Among the competitions you’ve probably at least heard of: drone racing, parachuting, bowling, racquetball and roller sports.
There are some that are variations on Olympic sports you already know: archery, canoeing, karate and powerlifting.
There are some you’ve probably never heard of: boules (it’s French for ball and includes games called lyonnaise and pétanque), dance sport (there are categories for rock and roll, Latin and “breaking”) and floorball (basically, floor hockey).
And then there’s the one that makes you go, “Wait, that’s a sport?” That’s right: The sport of lifesaving, not to be confused with the Lifesaving merit badge that’s earned by nearly 20,000 Scouts per year, is a competitive event at The World Games.
Jimmy Kennedy, 13, woke his family as Hurricane Katrina struck his home in D’Iberville, Miss., in the early morning hours. The electricity was out, and floodwaters were surging into the house.
Listen as Jimmy and his mother describe what he did to save his family from the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina in a true story of Scouts in Action.
When planning an aquatic Scouting event, you should review Scouting America safety resources beforehand. There are several tailored to specific activities, and they can all
