National Preparedness Month 2020

8/25/2020 (Permalink)

September 2020 is National Emergency Preparedness Month

September is National Preparedness Month

This year for National Preparedness Month, join your community in preparing for emergencies and disasters of all types and leading efforts to encourage the community as a whole to become more prepared. “Disasters happen” and cannot only devastate individuals and neighborhoods but entire communities.

It's not always the natural events that you have to worry about. Sometimes you have something like COVID19 hit out of the blue that catches pretty much everyone by surprise. Here are some things you can do to be prepared. 

Make and practice your Emergency Plan

Do you have an evacuation and Sheltering Place plan? Do you have a plan to communicate with your family before, during, and after an incident? Do you have an emergency supply kit?

Is your plan written out? Is it somewhere easily accessible? Make sure your family or employees are informed about and have practiced with your emergency plan. Be sure to sign up for alerts and warnings for your area and download other necessary apps to stay informed, such as the FEMA app. 

If you are in areas where the weather is a constant threat you might want to consider using windy.com to track your local weather. Their website and Android/IOS Apps have a ton of information and are easy to use.

Learn life-saving skills

1. Do you or someone in your family know CPR? 
2. Could you turn off your natural gas if necessary? 
3. Do you know how to take cover in an earthquake? 

Knowing these life-saving skills could mean life or death in an emergency situation for you, your family, or your neighbors.

Check your insurance coverage

Have you reviewed your insurance coverage recently to see if you're covered in a disaster? Evaluate which hazards are relevant to your area and obtain the appropriate insurance for your home business and other property and become familiar with your coverage.

Save for an emergency

Are you prepared financially in case of a disaster? Does your family have an emergency fund for unexpected expenses after a fire? Check out email emergency Financial first aid kit for an in-depth document to help you identify and compile important documents and account information on all in one spot. Just search EFFAK on fema.gov for the free PDF.

Financial resources aren't the only thing you should think about saving for a rainy day. Having food storage is another great way to prepare for an unforeseen disaster or pandemic. We will have a followup article specifically addressing ways to prepare food storage that is really useful.

Whether it's a flood, fire, or extreme winter weather, we must work together as a team to help ensure our family, businesses, places of worship, and neighborhoods are prepared. Contact SERVPRO North Central Mesa to find out how we can help make it “Like it never even happened,” in your life.