Individuals and Families: What You Can Do to Prepare for Emergencies
Emergencies and disasters can strike quickly and without warning. They can force you to evacuate your neighborhood or make it so that you can’t leave your home.
What would you do if basic services—water, gas, electricity, or telephones—were cut off?
Although first responders would be on the scene after a disaster, the recommendation is the public need to be self-sustainable for 72 hours. Therefore, the best way to make sure you, your family, and your home stay safe is to be prepared before disaster strikes. During an emergency, it helps if everyone can do their part:
- Be informed about the hazards that exist in our area and how they can affect you personally.
- Know what to do when a disaster or emergency does occur.
- Have a household/family evacuation and communications plan in place so that everyone in your family knows what to do and where to go in an emergency.
- Put together an emergency kit with supplies to help sustain you until services are restored or help can be provided.
To learn more about doing your part—including information about disasters and emergencies, evacuation and communications plans, and emergency kits—use the following resources:
- Do1Thing
- Do1Thing makes it easy for people to get started preparing for disasters and emergencies. It lists one activity that you can do each month to help prepare yourself.
- Ready.gov
- Ready.gov has detailed information about many types of emergency and disaster, along with information on how to make emergency plans and kits. It has special information to help seniors, disabled persons, children, and families with pets prepare.
- Michigan Prepares
- Michigan Prepares has information on the most common disasters and emergencies in Michigan and on how to make emergency plans and kits. They also offer a free, easy-to-use mobile app that acts as a tool to help you and your family create a basic emergency plan in a few quick steps.
- American Red Cross Preparedness for Seniors and People with Access and Functional Needs
- This webpage has disaster preparedness resources designed to address the unique needs of seniors and people with access and functional needs in emergency planning.
What you do now can help you and your family better respond to and recover from disaster, as well as contribute to the overall readiness of our region.