The plan itself is not what frightens a child. A tense, once-only conversation about it usually is.
The official one-page overview of everything to prepare, in order - the actual checklist to work down together.
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"Let's figure out our meeting spot" is a task with a beginning and an end. "We need to talk about what happens if something bad happens" is a talk with no edges, and children read the difference immediately.
Ten minutes deciding a meeting spot this week. Ten minutes packing a bag next week. Spread across a month, on days nothing is wrong, planning becomes background knowledge instead of a single frightening evening.
The official checklist linked below is a complete, ready-made version of what to cover — go through it as a family task, a few items at a time, rather than trying to build your own list from memory under pressure.
From about four, in the small, concrete pieces above - a meeting spot, a bag, a job. The full conversation is for an adult; the tasks are for the whole family.
Watch how they respond to the small tasks specifically. A child who gets more unsettled by a task-based approach may need it done even smaller and slower, or handled mostly by the adults with only the calmest pieces shared.
Part of our guide to Emergency prep for families with kids.