Emergency Preparedness

Where will you and your family be when disaster strikes? What would you do if basic services—water, gas, electricity, and telephones—were cut off for long periods? Emergencies and disasters strike quickly and without warning and can force you to evacuate your neighborhood or confine you to your home. Whether faced with a family emergency or a regional disaster, the effort you’ve put into family preparedness and disaster planning will play a large role in how well you “survive” the event.

What can you do to prepare your family?

Disaster can strike quickly and without warning. It can force you to evacuate yourneighborhood or confine you to your home. What would you do if basic services - water, gas, electricity or telephones - were cut off? Local officials and reliefworkers will be on the scene after a disaster, but they cannot reach everyoneright away. Medical help may not arrive at all. 9-1-1 will be totally overwhelmed ina major disaster.

Other helpful downloads

Pandemic Influenza—Avian Flu

Severe influenza pandemics represent one of the greatest potential threats to the public’s health. Pandemic influenza refers to a worldwide epidemic due to a new, dramatically different strain of influenza virus. A pandemic or global epidemic is an outbreak of an infectious disease that affects people or animals over an extensive geographical area. Avian flu (or bird flu) is a virus that occurs naturally among wild birds, but can be transmitted from birds to humans. Humans have not developed immunity towards it, nor has a vaccine been created.

The Family Emergency Preparedness Guide provides information for families during an event or an emergency. For more information, you may