The Office of Emergency Management & Planning encourages each student, faculty, and staff member to read the hurricane preparedness information on the National Weather Service in Raleigh website. The key to effective preparedness is knowing your local risks, developing a plan of action, and having a means of staying informed. Take advantage of our campus safety resources, registering for Alert Carolina, downloading the LiveSafe mobile app, and following the general safety tips, all accessible on our CarolinaSafe website.
The time to prepare is now!
All week long the National Weather Service has issued informative messages to help you prepare for the hurricane season. Today’s topic, the final in the series for this year’s hurricane preparedness week, is complete your written hurricane plan.
The time to prepare for a hurricane is before the season begins, when you have the time and are not under pressure. If you wait until a hurricane is on your doorstep, the odds are that you will be under duress and will make the wrong decisions. Take the time now to write down your hurricane plan. Know where you will ride out the storm and get your supplies now. You don’t want to be standing in long lines when a hurricane warning is issued. Those supplies that you need will probably be sold out by the time you reach the front of the line. Being prepared, before a hurricane threatens, makes you resilient to the hurricane impacts of wind and water. It will mean the difference between your being a hurricane victim and a hurricane survivor.
Here are some things to know about completing a written hurricane plan:
- Writing down your plan will ensure you don’t make mistakes when faced with an emergency.
- Document all of your valuables and possessions with a camera or video camera well before the storm.
- Gather all vital documents, like passports and medical records, and put them somewhere that you can quickly access.
- Make planning and preparedness a family affair to ensure everyone knows what to do.
- Don’t forget to include your pets in your plan.
- Every plan should include gathering non-perishable emergency supplies and assembling a disaster supply kit.
- Share your plan with others in your family, and have an out-of-state friend as a family contact who knows your plan and where you will go during a disaster, so all your family members have a single point of contact.
To make developing your family emergency plan easy, be sure to download a free template that is available online at ReadyNC.org.
For more information about hurricane preparedness, please visit the following websites: