Departments | Emergency Management Agency | Emergency Preparedness Checklist
Emergency Preparedness Checklist
Gather Information:
Call your Emergency Management Office at (641) 421-3665 or American
Red Cross at (641) 424-2454 to:
-
Find out which disasters could occur
in your area.
Methods of getting your attention vary from community
to community. One common method is to broadcast via
emergency
radio
and
TV broadcasts
. You might
hear a special siren, or get a telephone call, or emergency workers
may go door-to-door.
Neighborhoods and Apartment Buildings:
A community working together during an emergency makes sense
-
Talk to your neighbors
about how
you can
work together
during an emergency.
-
Find out if anyone has specialized equipment like a power generator,
or expertise such as medical knowledge, that might help in a crisis.
-
Decide who will check on elderly or disabled neighbors.
-
Make back-up plans for children in case you can't get home in
an emergency.
-
Sharing plans and communicating in advance is a good strategy.
At Work and School:
Like individuals and families, schools, daycare providers, workplaces,
neighborhoods and apartment buildings should all have site-specific
emergency plans.
Ask about plans at the places where your family spends the most time:
work, school and other places you frequent. If none exist, consider
volunteering to help develop one. You will be better prepared to safely
reunite your family and loved ones during an emergency if you think
ahead, and communicate with others in advance.
Schools and Daycare:
If you are a parent, or guardian of an elderly or disabled adult, make
sure schools and daycare providers have emergency response plans.
-
Ask how they will communicate with families during a crisis.
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Ask if they store adequate food, water and other basic supplies.
-
Find out if they are prepared to "shelter-in-place"
if need be, and where they plan to go if they must get away.
For more information on developing emergency preparedness plans for
schools, please visit the U.S. Department of Education at http://www.ed.gov/emergencyplan.
Employers:
If you are an employer, make sure your workplace has a building evacuation
plan that is regularly practiced.
-
Take a critical look at your heating, ventilation and air conditioning
system to determine if it is secure or if it could feasibly be upgraded
to better filter potential contaminants, and be sure you know how to
turn it off if you need to.
-
Think about what to do if your employees can't go home.
-
Make sure you have appropriate supplies on hand.
