September is Preparedness Month: Don’t Wait, Communicate!

It seems that you can’t turn on the news these days without seeing some kind of disaster taking place, whether it is wildfires in Southern California or flooding down south.

From big disasters to smaller, more personal ones, like a house fire, you can help your family design a plan—a plan to get through them together with confidence and peace of mind.

September is National Preparedness Month. Bright Insurance has tips for starting your emergency communication plan and links to resources for more information. The theme of this year’s campaign is great advice, “Don’t wait. Communicate.”

In honor of September is National Preparedness Month, Bright Insurance encourages you to:

-Discuss family/ household meet-up locations in the event of a disaster. Have a location in your neighborhood for a crisis such as a home fire, and a location further away case of an evacuation. Take location into consideration if anyone has a disability or special needs. Places to consider might be a local hotel/motel, family friend’s house or local shelter. If you have pets, make sure you have a pet-friendly location or a shelter/kennels information as well.

-Make sure everyone has a backup contact list in case they don’t have access to their cellphone. In the event of an evacuation, have an out of area person to contact as it might be easier for you to dial a long distance number if local lines are overloaded or out of service. You can find a printable for children and adults here https://www.ready.gov/make-a-plan.

-Find out how your community sends out emergency alerts, and make sure everyone in your family knows how to access them. Most communities have a wireless emergency alert system which sends information out via text message like alerts. In the event of national emergencies, emergency alerts are sent out through all cable, satellite and radio broadcast systems.

-Consider gathering a basic disaster kit to keep in your basement, which includes water, non-perishable foods, first aid kit, flashlights, and a battery operated radio. To see a more detailed, visit https://www.ready.gov/kit

There are a few online places you can let your family know that you are ok: the Red Cross Safe and Well Website https://safeandwell.communityos.org/cms/index.php and Facebook has a safety check application if you are in an area in crisis.

To download and print a plan for your family, go to: https://www.ready.gov/make-a-plan.