IV officials talk about emergency preparedness month
September is emergency preparedness month and the Imperial County Office of Emergency Services wants to remind the community how important it is to prepare and have a plan of action.
The plan could potentially save your life if you’re involved in an earthquake, fire or other dangerous situation. Do you have a plan of action in case of an earthquake or emergency? What would you do if cell phones didn’t work? How would you contact family and close friends?
The office of emergency services says some residents are becoming too relaxed, and not prepared. Imperial County Deputy Coordinator Rosa M. Hernandez, from the Office of Emergency Services, said, “We have experienced a large earthquake in 2010 and so we’ve noticed that community members both in Mexicali and here in Imperial County are kind of feeling very comfortable. But we just want to remind them that they need to have their emergency kits to be able to survive within the first 72 hours.”
Not only does the office prepare the community, but it puts a plan in place with other local agencies. “Primarily we say that water, water is very important. We need to at least have one gallon of water per person for three days,” Hernandez said.
“Then you want to make sure you have non-perishable food, a radio, as you remember in 2010, we had no communication, everybody wanted to know what was going on, the cell phones weren’t working so have a radio, battery operated. Have a flashlight, because we don’t know when it will happen again,” added Hernandez.
Hernandez says aside from the emergency kit it is important to have a family reunification plan. “Where are we going to meet after this emergency? And the most important is and evacuation plan. If you are all at home and you need to evacuate, what is the plan? Planning is very important. Have those written down now and practice them, train, exercise. And that will really make a big difference,” Hernandez said.
For more information on how to better prepare you and your family in case of an emergency you can visit www.ready.gov/september.
