Emergency Preparedness / 2022 / October
October 2022 Message
Dear Stake Members,
Looking back at last month's hurricane, have you stopped to think how you could have been better prepared? Many of us lost power for a day or two because of fallen trees on power lines. Imagine if the hurricane's path had come closer to our area. Are we prepared to lose power for more than a day? Are we prepared for more severe hurricane effects, such as flooding or damage to our homes?
The time to prepare for a hurricane is well before it happens. North Carolina's ReadyNC.gov website has a lot of tools and ideas on how to prepare for a hurricane. Some of the suggestions are more applicable for coastal towns, more impacted by hurricane damage, but there are also things everyone can do:
Before a hurricane:
prepare an emergency kit, including items needed for light and warmth in a power outage.
have emergency cash, in case power outages make card readers and ATMs unusable.
make a family communications plan.
keep storm drains and gutters around your home clear.
pay attention to weather reports.
Also, as always, it's important to have a supply of food storage. One of the many advantages of this is that when a storm hits, you can hunker down at home and not have to go out driving on roads made dangerous by storm conditions and traffic light outages!
Preparing for an emergency can seem overwhelming if we have done none of the things listed above. However, we can all start small -- just do one thing this week to prepare. Every time you go to the store, consider getting just one or two things for your emergency kit or food storage. Little by little small acts of preparation will add up and become a source of safety and peace for you and your family.
Sincerely,
Holly & Chris Earls
Stake Emergency Preparedness Coordinators