Do you and your family know what to do during an emergency situation or natural disaster?
Bruce County is urging its residents to take steps now to ensure they do by refreshing or creating a family emergency preparedness plan.
“Ensuring that you and your family are prepared for a possible emergency is one of the most important steps you can take,” Ray Lux, the county's emergency management coordinator, said in a statement. “Take the time to know your risks and make a plan. You may never have to use it, but if you do, you’ll be glad you made the effort.”
County officials recommend identifying risks as a first step. In Bruce County, those can include severe winter weather, such as blizzards that close roads and can lead to prolonged power outages, flooding during the spring melt, and summer tornadoes that can materialize with little warning. A possible non-environmental risk would be a cyber attack which can knockout communication services, utilities, and essential services.
Once potential risk are flagged, an emergency preparedness plan can be crafted outlining how a family will stay safe during each of the identified scenarios. Families should pick a meeting place to reunite if separated, detail how to care for each other for several days in the event emergency services are delayed, review children's school emergency procedures, and select a contact person close-by and out of town. Pets should also be factored into emergency preparedness plans to ensure they are taken care of.
A fill-in-the-blank emergency preparedness plan template can be downloaded from the Canadian Red Cross. Once completed the hardcopy of the plan should be kept with an emergency kit, the county recommended.
