September 30th is America’s PrepareAthon! Have Your Emergency Plan In Place

Tuesday, September 30, is America’s PrepareAthon! National Day of Action, a community-based campaign to increase emergency preparedness and resilience through action.

According to a recent survey, 50 percent of Americans have not discussed or developed an emergency plan for family members about where to go and what to do in the event of a local disaster. Additionally, nearly 70 percent of Americans have not participated in a preparedness drill or exercise, aside from a fire drill at their workplace, school or home in the past two years.

Here are a few ideas to help you plan:

Sign up for local text alerts and warnings and download weather apps to your smartphone. Stay aware of worsening weather conditions. Visit ready.gov/prepare and download Be Smart: Know Your Alerts and Warnings.

Gather important documents and keep them in a safe place. Have all of your personal, medical, and legal papers in one place, so you can evacuate without worrying about gathering your family’s critical documents at the last minute. Visit ready.gov/prepare and download Be Smart: Protect Your Critical Documents and Valuables for a helpful checklist.

Create an emergency supply kit. Bad weather can become dangerous very quickly. Be prepared by creating an emergency supply kit for each member of your family. Visit ready.gov/kit for more ideas of what to include in your kit.

Develop an emergency communication plan for your family. It’s possible that your family will be in different locations when a disaster strikes. Come up with a plan so everyone knows how to reach each other and get back together if separated. Visit ready.gov/make-a-plan for communication plan resources.