Personal & Family Preparedness
Emergencies Can Happen Anytime - Are You Ready?
Why should you prepare??
Preparedness can reduce fear, anxiety, and losses that accompany disasters. You can also decrease the impact of disasters and sometimes avoid the danger completely!
As a team member of the MediSys Health Network, your level of personal and family preparedness helps enhance the overall preparedness efforts at the workplace. During an emergency, the health network relies on you to help sustain normal operations to continue serving patients.
As a team member of the MediSys Health Network, your level of personal and family preparedness helps enhance the overall preparedness efforts at the workplace. During an emergency, the health network relies on you to help sustain normal operations to continue serving patients.
3 Basic Steps For
Personal & Family Preparedness
1– Make a Plan
In the event of an emergency, natural or otherwise, it is important to make sure that your family's basic needs are being met and that they are safe. The most effective way to do this is to have a plan in place. It's very easy to panic during an emergency; being mentally and physically prepared may help to minimize that feeling of panic and enable you to keep your family calm, cool, collected, and most importantly, safe. An emergency preparedness plan should include a disaster supply kit, as well as any emergency essentials.
Your family may not be together if a disaster strikes, so it is important to know which types of disasters could affect your area. Create your own personal network for specific areas where you need assistance. Discuss your needs and responsibilities and how people in the network can assist each other in the event of an emergency.
As you prepare your plan tailor your plans and supplies to your specific daily living needs and responsibilities. Create a communications plan and be sure to include how you’ll contact one another and reconnect if separated. Establish a family meeting place that’s familiar and easy to find.
Items to include when developing your plan:
2– Gather Supplies
In the event that you and your family have to either evacuate or shelter in place, you must always make sure that you have enough supplies for each member of your household. This can be accomplished by packing sturdy, easy to carry “Go-Bag”. Create a Go-Bag before the emergency, one for every member of the household and ready for evacuation in a moment’s notice.
Go-Bag items should include:
Preparing for extended periods of emergency is also important. Natural disasters may knock out power, pollute drinking water, and make it difficult for first responders to reach you. If the event doesn’t require an evacuation. An emergency supply kit for covering each member of your household is just as critical if you are forced to shelter in place (SIP). Your in-house stockpile of supplies, similarly to your go-bag, should have enough supplies to sustain each member of your household for a minimum of three days.
SIP- Emergency supply kits should include:
Mark your calendar to remind you to check your Go Bag every six months. Replace your medications & snacks with fresh supplies. Check batteries in flashlight, radio & extra batteries to be sure they are still good.
3– Stay Informed
In any kind of Emergency situation, timing and obtaining information is crucial. Receiving timely information about weather conditions or other emergency events can make all the difference in knowing when to take action to be safe. Local police and fire departments, emergency managers, the National Weather Service (NWS), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and private industry are working together to make sure you can receive alerts and warnings quickly through several different technologies no matter where you are–at home, at school, at work, or in the community.
- Enhanced Telephone Notification (ETN) SYSTEMS
- Outdoor sirens and/or voice alert systems
There are many different news outlets, social media based pages, classes, and agencies one can either subscribe to or learn different information and tactics in regards to situational awareness and different responses to all types of events that might affect you or your family. It's also important to involve your community in your disaster preparedness plans. Let your neighbors know what you're doing to keep your family safe an encourage them to take precautions of their own.
Building a proactive network of people that may be of assistance may help you and allow you to help others in need. Communication is a vital part of being prepared, no matter what the emergency may be, and it's best to over communicate, knowing that people around you may be stressed and may only retain part of the information being imparted.
In the event of an emergency, natural or otherwise, it is important to make sure that your family's basic needs are being met and that they are safe. The most effective way to do this is to have a plan in place. It's very easy to panic during an emergency; being mentally and physically prepared may help to minimize that feeling of panic and enable you to keep your family calm, cool, collected, and most importantly, safe. An emergency preparedness plan should include a disaster supply kit, as well as any emergency essentials.
Your family may not be together if a disaster strikes, so it is important to know which types of disasters could affect your area. Create your own personal network for specific areas where you need assistance. Discuss your needs and responsibilities and how people in the network can assist each other in the event of an emergency.
As you prepare your plan tailor your plans and supplies to your specific daily living needs and responsibilities. Create a communications plan and be sure to include how you’ll contact one another and reconnect if separated. Establish a family meeting place that’s familiar and easy to find.
Items to include when developing your plan:
- Family Communications Plan
- Contact information for all members of the family
- Including out-of-state contacts
- Evacuation Routes/Meeting Place
- Have two meeting places
- Always have another family member or friend to stay with
- Know your Hurricane Evacuation Zones and local shelter locations
- List of medical and life saving Information
- Allergies
- Medical conditions
- Prescriptions
- Blood type
- Health insurance
- Physician contact info
- Special Considerations
- Child Care
- Elder Care
- Persons with Disabilities
- Limited English Speaking
- Pet Care
2– Gather Supplies
In the event that you and your family have to either evacuate or shelter in place, you must always make sure that you have enough supplies for each member of your household. This can be accomplished by packing sturdy, easy to carry “Go-Bag”. Create a Go-Bag before the emergency, one for every member of the household and ready for evacuation in a moment’s notice.
Go-Bag items should include:
- List of your Emergency Contacts, including a phone number for an out-of-state contact
- List of personal medical information & medications, including any drug/food allergies
- Three-day supply of medications, & copies of your prescriptions
- First Aid Kit
- Bottled water, non-perishable food, snacks
- Assistive items needed for eating or drinking (can opener, spoons, straws, etc.)
- Flashlight & glow sticks
- Whistle, horn or other device to signal for help
- Photocopy of personal identification (driver’s license, state ID, etc.)
- Waterproof matches, lighter
- Extra pair of glasses or contact lenses (with cleaning solution)
- Small battery-powered radio
- Dust mask, protective goggles
- Small amount of cash
- Extra set of keys to house, car, etc.
- Personal hygiene & toiletry products, including soap/hand sanitizer
- Assorted sizes of re-sealable plastic zipper bags (for storing food, waste, etc.)
- Change of socks, undergarments, & other clothing
- Rain gear, work gloves
- Emergency blanket
- Pet food, water, meds, & other pet supplies
- Pocketknife or multi-tool
- Rope, duct tape, & other fasteners
- Cell phone charging cord
- Extra batteries (for flashlight, radio, hearing aids, etc.)
- Solar powered charger
- Any other items you need on a daily basis
Preparing for extended periods of emergency is also important. Natural disasters may knock out power, pollute drinking water, and make it difficult for first responders to reach you. If the event doesn’t require an evacuation. An emergency supply kit for covering each member of your household is just as critical if you are forced to shelter in place (SIP). Your in-house stockpile of supplies, similarly to your go-bag, should have enough supplies to sustain each member of your household for a minimum of three days.
SIP- Emergency supply kits should include:
- Water: one gallon per person, per day (3-day supply for evacuation, 2-week supply for home)
- Food: non-perishable, easy-to-prepare items (3-day supply for evacuation, 2-week supply for home).
- Flashlights
- Battery-powered or hand-crank radio (NOAA Weather Radio, if possible)
- Deluxe family first aid kit
- Medications (7-day supply) and medical items
- Multi-purpose tool Sanitation and personal hygiene items
- Copies of personal documents (medication list and pertinent medical information, proof of address, deed/lease to home, passports, birth certificates, insurance policies)
- Solar powered chargers
- Family and emergency contact information
- Extra cash
- Map(s) of the area
- Medical supplies (hearing aids with extra batteries, glasses, contact lenses, syringes, etc)
- Baby supplies (bottles, formula, baby food, diapers)
- Games and activities for children
- Pet supplies (collar, leash, ID, food, carrier, bowl)
- Two-way radios
- Extra set of car keys and house keys
- Manual can opener
- Whistle
- N95 or surgical masks
- Matches
- Rain gear
- Towels
- Work gloves
- Tools/supplies for securing your home
- Extra clothing, hat and sturdy shoes
- Plastic sheeting
- Duct tape
- Scissors
- Household liquid bleach
- Blankets or sleeping bags
Mark your calendar to remind you to check your Go Bag every six months. Replace your medications & snacks with fresh supplies. Check batteries in flashlight, radio & extra batteries to be sure they are still good.
3– Stay Informed
In any kind of Emergency situation, timing and obtaining information is crucial. Receiving timely information about weather conditions or other emergency events can make all the difference in knowing when to take action to be safe. Local police and fire departments, emergency managers, the National Weather Service (NWS), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and private industry are working together to make sure you can receive alerts and warnings quickly through several different technologies no matter where you are–at home, at school, at work, or in the community.
- Smartphone Apps
- FEMA App
- Red Cross App
- Weather Channel App
- Local New Channels App
- Local Jurisdiction Emergency Notification System
- Notify NYC
- NY-Alert
- Enhanced Telephone Notification (ETN) SYSTEMS
- Outdoor sirens and/or voice alert systems
- Public health agencies
- Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)
- The NOAA Weather Radio (NWR)
There are many different news outlets, social media based pages, classes, and agencies one can either subscribe to or learn different information and tactics in regards to situational awareness and different responses to all types of events that might affect you or your family. It's also important to involve your community in your disaster preparedness plans. Let your neighbors know what you're doing to keep your family safe an encourage them to take precautions of their own.
Building a proactive network of people that may be of assistance may help you and allow you to help others in need. Communication is a vital part of being prepared, no matter what the emergency may be, and it's best to over communicate, knowing that people around you may be stressed and may only retain part of the information being imparted.
For additional information on personal and family preparedness click the links below-
New York City Office of Emergency Management
American Red Cross in Greater New York Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
US Department of Homeland Security
Federal Emergency Management Agency
New York City Office of Emergency Management
American Red Cross in Greater New York Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
US Department of Homeland Security
Federal Emergency Management Agency