Emergency plan rules in North Dakota
2 licence types researched, regulated by North Dakota Dept. of Health and Human Services. Every requirement below carries the rule that imposes it.
Assisted living / residential care
Licensed in North Dakota as Assisted Living Facility, by North Dakota Dept. of Health and Human Services.
N.D. Admin. Code ch. 33-33-09 (assisted living facilities)
A current, written emergency disaster plan containing a plan for evacuation; addressing the elements of SHELTERING IN PLACE; identifying TEMPORARY RELOCATION SITES; and detailing STAFF ASSIGNMENTS in a disaster or emergency. North Dakota requires both directions — leaving and staying — and named sites rather than a general intention to relocate.
N.D. Admin. Code ch. 33-33-09Reviewed 2026-07-30
Group home / residential care home
Licensed in North Dakota as Basic Care Facility, by North Dakota Dept. of Health and Human Services.
N.D. Admin. Code ch. 33-03-24.1 (basic care facilities); fire safety provisions at 33-03-24.2-08
North Dakota requires documentation of a fire drill WALK-THROUGH within five days of a resident's admission — the tightest new-resident orientation window found in any state, against Wisconsin's 72 hours for a briefing and Illinois' 10 days. It is a walk-through, not a briefing: the resident physically travels the route.
N.D. Admin. Code ch. 33-03-24.1A basic care facility resident must be capable of self-preservation and may not have a condition requiring continuous 24-hour on-site nursing or medical care. That admission criterion is itself an emergency-planning decision — it is how North Dakota keeps this class's evacuation problem tractable.
N.D. Admin. Code ch. 33-03-24.1Reviewed 2026-07-30
What this page is
The requirements North Dakota places on a facility emergency preparedness plan, taken from the state’s own rules rather than a national template. Where we have confirmed something against primary text it is stated plainly; where we have not, it says so and names what to check. Nothing here is inferred from what other states do.
The part that is the same everywhere
The federal floor does not vary by state. OSHA 29 CFR §1910.38 binds any employer: reporting an emergency, evacuation and exit-route assignments, critical-operations shutdown, accounting for everyone afterwards, rescue and medical duties, and naming who to ask about the plan. That layer, plus the exit-route, alarm and first-aid rules and the fire code’s plan structure, is covered in the main crash course rather than repeated on all fifty state pages.
Write the plan
The Emergency Plan Builder produces the document itself and is driven by this same research, so the two cannot disagree about what North Dakota requires. The Compliance Calendar puts the drills and inspections on dates.