National Preparedness Month has been observed in September since 2004 and has already reached its 10-year anniversary. The objective of this declared observance is to encourage Americans to take steps to prepare for emergencies in their homes, businesses, schools, and communities. Some of these steps include building emergency supply kits, making a family emergency plan and communications plan, staying informed on disaster information and related risks, and taking advantage of opportunities to get involved in preparedness/response efforts. There are a number of exciting things going on in the preparedness community this month which can be found at http://www.ready.gov/september
The focus of National Preparedness Month Week #2 is on tailoring your preparedness plans to suit your individual and family needs. Preparing for a disaster is similar to preparing for a family vacation in that no two families are going to pack the same types of items, brands of items, or number of items. All families are different and, therefore, have specific needs. These needs may be related to personal hygiene, a medical condition, dietary restrictions, ages of children/infants, disabilities, elderly, pets, or anything else that may require you to take some specific preparations to ensure these needs are met. If you have purchased a standard emergency response kit or pulled some general disaster preparedness plans/information off the internet you are on the right track! But now it’s time to take that next step, if you haven’t done so already, by augmenting these kits and plans so that their suitable for you and your family. To help you brainstorm and get you started please see the suggestions below:
• Households with children should understand the school’s plans and where the children will stay safe if adults in the household need to shelter in other locations until the immediate hazard is over.
• Individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing should make sure that they can receive emergency alerts and warnings in an accessible form.
• Individuals who require accessible transportation should work with their local paratransit and disability service providers to make an emergency plan.
• People who speak languages other than English may need to identify sources of alerts and warnings and information about community plans in other languages.
• People without vehicles should know local plans for public transportation and may need to make arrangements for transportation from local government, organizations or others.
• Households with infants should plan for food and supplies for infants and nursing mothers.
• People with dietary needs should have an adequate emergency food supply to meet their needs.
• People who take medications should maintain an adequate supply, and copies of their prescriptions.
• People with service animals should work with local emergency management to ensure that their service dog will be admitted to shelters with them during emergencies (as required by law) and should make sure their plan kit supplies include food and other items for their service animal.
• People who require power for medical or other assistive devices should consider how they will maintain the use of these devices if there is a loss of power. Keep extra batteries for small devices (hearing aids, cell phones for example) and consider obtaining and learning how to use a generator for home use and carrying a charger when away from home, especially when loss of power may jeopardize health or safety.
For more information on developing preparedness kits and materials please visit www.ready.gov or http://www.readyoc.org/
There are certainly some standard items that everybody should acquire in their preparedness efforts such as adequate food/water supply, flashlight, batteries, radio, first aid kit, etc., however, it’s typically those non-standard items that will make the difference between merely surviving a disaster and effectively getting through it.
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