National Preparedness Month gets people ready for disaster

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – Disasters can happen any time, anywhere and emergency agencies around the area want you to be prepared for the worst.

The best way to get ready is to have an emergency plan in place; making and practicing that plan is the focus of the first week of National Preparedness Month.

The next weeks focus on learning life saving skills, checking your insurance coverage and saving for disasters.

Whitfield County emergency managers said “we want to encourage you to practice your plan, it could be something as simple as finding your fire escape routes and practicing that”

Several local offices like the Whitfield County Emergency Services do training sessions to show the public how to get ready for any type of disaster.

EM Amy Ramsey said “We do a Community Emergency Response Team or CERT. We do that several times a year and it teaches people how to be prepared for a disaster, how to turn off the utilities and how to put out small fires.”

Another important step is putting together a survival kit including food, water, medicine and important papers.

“You don’t have to go spend a lot of money for your kit,” said Ramsey. “You can go to a thrift store, you can go to the dollar store. We actually have a kit we prepared here in the office shopping only at the dollar tree.”

Hamilton County EMA also wants people to not lose awareness just because the Tennessee Valley has not had a major disaster in the past few years.

FEMA and other national agencies also participate in National Preparedness Month.

The goal is to get people ready for both natural and man-made tragedies.