Are You Ready?

The recent tornado in Northeast Philadelphia and serve storm weather throughout the area got me thinking about community emergency preparedness. You need to understand that these are not rare events, Southeastern Pennsylvania is hit hard ever spring by heavy rains and thunderstorms. Even though we do not see tornadoes the magnitude of what has recently happened in the southern United States, Pennsylvania is exposed to several a year. In addition to these events, you and your family are exposed to lots of little disasters throughout the year as well. Being prepared is the key to protecting you, your family and your property. During a significant event, the local emergency services can become overwhelmed with calls for help -- you must be able to take simple actions to help yourself!

Prepare an Emergency Kit, having basic supplies readily available can make a tremedous difference during an emergency. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has a detailed list of items to include in your emergency kit at their website Ready America! It's okay if the contents of your kit differ from those of your neighbors -- you want to personalize it to your needs. Keep your emergency kit portable and stored it in an easy-to-move case. 

If you have younger children in your family include story books, coloring books or simple games for them. During an emergency computer games and larger toys may not be available and being able to entertain children with become a necessity. 

For families that deal with prescription medications I also recommend, that you keep your medications in one location like the kitchen or bathroom (out of reach of young children of course). This will make finding your medications easier during an emergency. Store all your medications in plastic box or zip-lock freezer bag, with your name clearly labeled on it. Everyone should have their own medication container. Inside your container, have a list of medications that includes the name, strength and dosage instructions for all your medications.

Establish a family communications plan. Know how to reach each other, this has become much easier now that most people have cellular phones. Remember that during a high-use time such as a natural disaster phone communications can be interrupted but SMS (Short Message Service) texts can often get through. Be sure to include extra chargers for you phone in your emergency kit. Another idea is to set up an alternative contact person in a different location, it is often easier to reach someone out of the local area during a disaster or evacuation event. This person serves as your central communications hub and tracks the location of everyone during the event. 

While on the subject of communications, be alert to safety messages and broadcasts. Technology has made this much easier than in the past. Subscribe to the Twitter feeds of your local government or emergency management agency and set up severe weather warnings on your cellular phone. 

Have important documents handy or stored someplace safe. Again, technology has made this task easier. You can use electronic storage sites like Evernote or Dropbox to store digital/scanned copies of your insurance policies, medical information and home inventories so that they can be download anywhere/anytime. 

Home Inventories are a terrific resource! They can be a pencil/paper system or a simple computer data base (most computer productivity applications have a home inventory template that you can download from the Internet). A simple list of contents in each room that includes the item, make, model and description will suffice in most cases. Your insurance agency or public adjust (yes, I recommend you build a relationship with a public adjuster before you need one) can provide you with more guidelines for a home inventory based on the requirements of your insurance policies. 

Finally, learn First Aid/CPR! Learning how to provide basic emergency care until help arrives can be the difference between life and death in some cases.