(LAKELAND, Fla.)- Disasters, whether predictable like hurricanes or sudden like earthquakes, can severely impact your life, home, and well-being. While we cannot control when these events occur, proactive preparation can significantly mitigate their effects. By taking simple, cost-effective measures now, you can protect your household and expedite recovery, reducing both damage and costs.
The Legal Aid Disaster Resource Center has outlined the following info for disaster survivors. The Legal Aid Disaster Resource Center was created by the non-profit Legal Services Corporation (LSC), the nation's largest funder of civil legal aid for low-income Americans.
Build Disaster Kits
It’s important to be prepared for emergencies, whether you’re sheltering in place or evacuating. Building shelter-in-place and evacuation kits can help ensure that you have essential items you need to take care of everyone living in your home.
How To Build a Shelter-in-Place Kit
A shelter-in-place kit is one of the best tools for keeping everyone in your home safe. This kit provides the food, water, and supplies you need for at least three days. It also provides necessary items that can be hard to find in stores right before a disaster because everyone is buying them.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides a full list of recommended items for your kit. But in general, you want to include:
- Ready-to-eat foods you can store a long time without refrigeration. Make sure you also store a manual can opener, paper plates, and disposable forks, knives, and spoons. Check twice a year to make sure you’re not keeping any food past its expiration date.
- Beverages to stay hydrated, including 1 gallon of drinking water for each person for each day (at least 3 gallons per person). Canned juices and nonperishable, pasteurized milk are also good options.
- Things you need to stay clean and healthy, like hand sanitizer, soap, toothbrush and toothpaste, toilet paper, and menstruation products such as tampons and pads.
- Items for young children — such as infant formula and diapers — and food and extra water for pets.
- Other emergency supplies, like a first-aid kit, a flashlight, and a battery-operated AM/FM radio to listen for weather, evacuation, and emergency shelter updates. Store extra batteries and check their expiration dates twice a year. Replace as necessary.
- Fully charged backup batteries or portable chargers for cellphones. A solar-powered backup charger is the best option because it can be charged by sunlight.
Be sure this kit is easy to find and ready to use in an emergency. Here’s how:
- Keep all the items in one place and tell everyone in the household where this place is.
- Store as much as you can in waterproof containers.
- Don’t bury your kit underneath other items.
- Make it clear to all household members that these supplies are only for emergencies.
How To Build an Evacuation Kit
Think of this kit as your “grab and go” bag. It will contain the most important items for taking care of yourself, other people in your household, and your pets (if you have them). Store it someplace that’s easy to get to. Tell everyone in your household where you stored it.
Evacuation kits should be easy to carry and should contain the following items:
- Copies of ID, such as driver’s licenses or birth certificates.
- Copies of insurance policies.
- Written records of medications. Include the medication name, how often to take it, how much to take each time, and your pharmacy’s phone number.
- Small, nonperishable food items, such as granola bars, and food for infants as needed.
- A small amount of water for each person.
- A small amount of money in small bills. ATMs and banks may not be available.
- Flashlights, a portable radio, and extra batteries.
- Personal care items such as toothpaste, hand sanitizer, soap, and menstruation products.
- Bad weather gear, such as ponchos.
- A short-term supply of pet food if you have pets.
If you’re leaving by car and have room, you can bring the larger shelter-in-place kit you created. You can also take items such as blankets, sleeping bags, and extra clothing.
Make a Plan
For some disasters, you may have to leave your home to stay somewhere else for a while, such as a relative’s house or a shelter. You might get only a few days’ warning, or less, that you need to move. Here’s how to be ready.
Know How To Get Out
Plan a safe route ahead of time. But be prepared to make last-minute changes.
- Contact your local emergency management office or agency to ask about evacuation routes. These routes might not include your street, so plan how you will get to the routes from your home. Keep written copies of these routes and plans.
- If you don’t have a car or other vehicle, plan for some other way to leave. Sharing a ride with friends or neighbors who have a vehicle is one option.
- Always listen to the radio or TV for updates on evacuation routes.
- Don’t hesitate to change your route as necessary. Never drive through flooded roads. Road damage or downed trees also could make some roads unsafe or impossible to drive on.
Know Where You’re Going
When you evacuate, you’ll need to know where you’re headed. You may have more than one option.
- Staying with friends or family is usually best. Find out now if they’re able and willing to let you stay with them during an emergency. Keep a written list at home that includes their names, addresses, and phone numbers.
- Contact your local emergency management office to ask about shelters in your area. Make a list of these shelters and keep a copy of this list in your home.
- Shelter locations can change during an emergency, so tune in to local news. Another way to find open shelters is to text the word SHELTER, followed by your ZIP code (for example, “SHELTER 73026”) to 43362. You’ll receive a response from FEMA.
- If you have pets, find out which shelters accept them. Not all shelters do. That’s why it’s a good idea to plan now for other safe places you could leave your pets.
Make Plans for Your Pets
If you have pets, there are special steps you can take to plan for their care. This is important because some emergency shelters for disaster survivors can’t accept pets. The federal government’s Ready.gov disaster planning site provides pet-specific tips for:
- Making a plan for evacuating pets and for finding someone to take care of them.
- Tracking them if they get lost.
- Building an emergency kit that covers their needs.
- Preparing for what to do with horses and other large pets.
Take Your Final Steps
Some disasters come without warning. But sometimes weather forecasters and officials warn the public days in advance that a flood, hurricane, or other disaster is possible. When you know a disaster might happen, you should:
- Fill your vehicle’s gas tank. The disaster could close gas stations or create long lines for fill-ups.
- Fully charge your cellphone and cellphone battery backups. Don’t overuse your phone if the power goes out. If your phone has a low-power mode, use it to save battery life. You may need the phone to make emergency calls.
- Turn your fridge and freezer temperature to the coolest possible setting. This will help preserve the food inside longer during a power outage. Freeze refrigerated items that you may not need right away, such as fresh meat, to keep them at a safe temperature longer during an outage.
- If you control your home’s gas and water supply, make sure you know where and how to turn off the supply. If you must evacuate, turn them off before you go. (Note that for your gas supply, a qualified professional must turn it back on. Never attempt to turn the gas back on yourself.)
- Confirm your evacuation route and evacuation plan. As needed, check with the local government to determine if it is assisting with evacuations.
Stay Informed
Information can change often before, during, and after a disaster. Use these sources to stay up to date on weather conditions, other emergencies, and disaster-related services:
- Local radio and TV stations.
- Your local emergency management office.
- Weather apps you can download to your cellphone.
- FEMA’s app, which you can use to receive real-time weather alerts, send notifications to loved ones, locate emergency shelters and FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers, and more.
- The American Red Cross Emergency App, which lets you customize 40 different weather alerts and has an interactive map to help you find open Red Cross shelters.
Prepare for Specific Types of Disasters
Some ways to prepare, like building a disaster kit, are useful for any type of disaster. But you also can do more to prepare for the types of disasters that are most likely to happen where you live. For example, prepare for earthquakes and wildfires if you live in California. In Oklahoma, get ready for tornadoes, especially during peak tornado season in the southern Plains from May into early June.