Your family may not be together when disaster strikes, so it is important to plan in advance: how you will contact one another; how you will get back together; and what you will do in   different situations.

 Family Emergency Plan

• Identify an out-of-town contact.  It may be easier to make a long-distance phone call than to call across town, so an out-of-town contact may be in a better position to communicate among separated family members.
• Be sure every member of your family knows the phone number and has a cell phone, coins, or a prepaid phone card to call the emergency contact.  If you have a cell phone, program that person(s) as ICE (In Case of Emergency) in your phone.  If you are in an accident, emergency personnel will often check your ICE listings in order to get a hold of someone you know. 
• Teach family members how to use text messaging.  Text messages can often get around network disruptions when a phone call might not be able to get through.

 Planning to stay or go

Depending on your circumstance and the nature of the emergency, the first important decision is whether you stay where you are or evacuate.  You should understand and plan for both possibilities.  Use common sense and available information to determine if there is an immediate danger.

Emergency Information

Find out what kinds of disasters are most likely to occur in your area and how you will be   notified.  You might hear a special siren, get a telephone call, or emergency workers may go door-to-door.  Methods of getting your attention vary from community to community.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 at 10:31 am and is filed under Bismarck-Burleigh Public Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.