Crises rarely stay in one place. They cascade across boundaries and domains. A flood can disrupt transport, which interrupts supply chains, which impacts health and livelihoods. These cascading risks reveal how deeply systems are connected. ‘Life-line’ planning helps communities to build awareness of these connections. It means agencies, sectors, and communities working together to anticipate where risks might flow and how impacts can spread. By looking at the whole system, blind spots shrink and responses strengthen. Resilience grows when planning is designed for cascades, not silos.