Disaster Preparedness Tips

Tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards... natural disasters are inevitable and the key to heading into these seasons is to stay prepared. Having an emergency plan in place to protect yourself or your family can mean the difference between life and death.

Household Planning for Disasters
If you haven't taken the time to develop a plan to stay informed for such events, these simple steps below could save your life in event of an emergency.

1. Make a Plan: Ready.gov offers free resources to learn about the disasters that you could face and how to plan for them. It's important to understand which type of disasters could affect your area, and establish a meeting place with family or friends that is familiar and easy to locate.
   
2. Access Local Resources: Contact your local fire department to see if they have materials or programs available to provide fire or carbon monoxide detectors.
   
3. Emergency Alerts: Sign up for free emergency alerts in your local area to receive life saving information from your state. Checkout the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to see a registry of Wireless Emergency Alert providers.
   
4. Home Insurance: Meet with your insurance agent to make sure that your home is fully insured for the disaster risks in your area and ensure that there are no gaps in coverage.
   
5. Document Storage: Items like passports, birth certificates, and electronics should be kept in a secure place (high shelf, upper floor, waterproof bags).
   
6. Emergency Supply Kit: Being prepared means having your own food, water and other supplies to last you several days. A disaster supply kit consists of basic items from your household that you may need in case of emergency. Examples of these basic items include a flashlight, extra batteries, copies of important documents, non-perishable food, water, etc.

Get Involved
Learn how you can help your community before, during and after a disaster or emergency.

1. Join a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT): These programs allow individuals to get trained on basic disaster response skills such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations.
   
2. Donate: During a disaster, you can donate to an organization of your choice through the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters (NVOAD), and volunteer to respond to disasters in your local area.
   
3. Volunteer: Volunteer with a local or national organization to help support preparedness efforts in your community.

How to Report Emergencies
Call 911 if you are in immediate danger, or if someone is injured, has trouble breathing, or is unconscious.

For more detailed information about how to be prepared for emergencies, visit Ready.gov or FEMA.

How ISN Can Help
Are you a Hiring Client interested in learning more about how to prepare your business for a disaster? Current ISN Hiring Client customers should contact your account representative to learn about tools in ISNetworld that can support your efforts.

If you’re interested in learning how ISN can help you streamline your contractor management programs and prepare your business for a disaster, request a demo of our contractor management platform, ISNetworld.