Disaster Preparedness

Emergency Preparedness

Emergency preparedness begins at the basic level: What should one do to prepare oneself? Assess your surroundings: What hazards do you face? Prepare a plan on what to do in an emergency. Acquire items needed to sustain you, family, and pets such as food, water, flashlight, batteries, identification, medications, money, etc. Follow the same steps anytime you enter a new environment. Also, the use of social media is a useful communication tool to follow the information or to let others know relevant details.

Relevant Tools

Centers for Disease Control & Prevention

Keep It With You: Personal Medical Information Form, this two-sided form is intended to be a "temporary record" detailing medical history and care for use during disasters, when records might be inaccessible. It is a simple form that can be partially filled out in advance and included in disaster kits.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

Learn how people can apply for emergency assistance from FEMA, and it includes information on housing. It is divided into sections: before you apply, apply for assistance, and after you apply.

The National Archives: Disaster Response & Recovery

The National Archives: Disaster Response and Response website lists numerous records’ preservation and salvage resources. It includes many links, including websites offering instructions about dealing with wet documents, books, photos, and other materials; lists of vendors offering recovery and salvage services; and a sample plan for preserving records.

Pets 911

Th Pets 911 website offers a directory of local emergency veterinary clinics, which is searchable by zip code, that may be able to help families protect their pets during a disaster.

Ready America: Ready.gov

Ready.gov is an extensive disaster preparedness website. The "Be Informed" page explains the causes and effects of various natural and man made disasters. The "Local Information" page provides a list of local agencies with preparedness responsibilities.

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

The Disaster and Emergencies website provides information for families (as well as for businesses and responders) on how to plan for, prepare for, and respond to natural and man made disasters. The "Natural Disaster" page and "Man-Made Disaster" page include a compilation of user-friendly fact sheets about how to respond to specific disasters from the CDC, the EPA, FEMA, and other organizations.

U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD)

The HUD website contains a catalog of HUD news stories. Press releases on this website may include links to information about HUD assistance for specific disasters.