Plan and Prepare

Photo of emergency supplies, such as food, a flashlight, and toiletries, to pack in your "go kit&The best way to protect your family and your property during an emergency is to prepare and plan ahead of time. Don't wait for disaster to hit your community. Taking the time now to plan for any hazard will allow you to act quickly and provide your family the best chance to stay safe.

We encourage all residents to have an emergency action plan in place, in case there's an emergency in your neighborhood. There are a lot of great resources to help you develop your plan that we will share below. The main steps for you to be prepared are:

  1. Have an emergency action plan 
    • Know what actions to take for a variety of hazards/disasters. Go over your plan for sheltering in place and evacuating, depending on what is needed to keep you safe during a major incident.
    • Teach all household members and employees what to do during an emergency. 
    • Establish where you will reunite as a family and how you'll communicate if separated during an emergency. Often having a point of contact outside of the state may be easier to connect to over the phone than someone in the same area due to towers getting overloaded during an incident. Text messages have a better chance of getting through than phone calls.  
    • Employers - how will you account for your employee's safety during and after an emergency? What do you need to sustain business operations during and following an emergency?
  2. Build your emergency “Go Kit”
    • Assemble a home kit, go kit and car kit that will get you through the next 72 hours.
    • A home kit is comprised of supplies you'll need if you have to shelter in place or are without power or water.
    • A go kit is the bag you grab when you must evacuate, and it's filled with essential documents, medications, pet supplies, baby food, etc. 
    • A car kit is something you keep in your car that has essential supplies if you were to get stranded during an emergency and can't get home. 
  3. Sign up for emergency alerts
  4. Review and update your plan annually and go over together as a household
    • It's important to go over your plan and to practice it annually.
    • Business owners - do your employees know what to do during an emergency? 
    • If your children are at home when an emergency strikes, would they know what to do? 
    • Have you prepared a home escape plan as a family?

Prepare Your Home for a Wildfire

Planning Resources for Residents and Business Owners