How To Prep for a Natural Disaster

Prism Specialties

June 28th, 2023

How To Prep for a Natural Disaster Every family should have a disaster preparedness plan to keep everyone safe and ensure a better recovery. Learn more about what you need to prepare. How To Prep for a Natural Disaster Disaster often strikes quickly and without remorse, for the people and area it affects. That’s why […]

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How To Prep for a Natural Disaster

Every family should have a disaster preparedness plan to keep everyone safe and ensure a better recovery. Learn more about what you need to prepare.

How To Prep for a Natural Disaster

Disaster often strikes quickly and without remorse, for the people and area it affects. That’s why having a plan is vital to your and your family’s safety. Preparing for disaster before, during, and after it occurs will help keep everyone safe and provide a clear path for recovery. Learn more about what preparation and supplies you need for disaster planning.

What Is Disaster Preparedness?

Disaster readiness is the planning and precautions individuals, communities, governments, organizations, and facilities take to prepare for common natural disasters. This includes having a clear plan for action, evacuation, and recovery. By setting up these precautions, individuals are more likely to recover from these unavoidable, severe weather circumstances safely.

Why Is Being Prepared for Natural Disasters Important?

Aside from keeping communities and families safe, preparing for natural disasters significantly reduces overall loss, anxiety, and panic that can ensue from these situations. As an individual, when you are adequately prepared for natural disasters, you can help your family better recover from the damage, and you can also help your surrounding community. As a government, organization, or facility, disaster readiness helps mitigate loss by digitizing, storing, and recovering essential items, documents, and processes—reducing the time it would take to recover businesses and day-to-day resources that people need to recover from disaster.

Create A Natural Disaster Plan

Your disaster emergency plan should cover all the baselines of what to do before, during, and after a natural disaster.

Know What To Do Before a Natural Disaster

Develop a plan for everyone in your household and stick to it. This includes having multiple variations and solutions in place in case you’re separated or unable to complete the original plan. To prepare before a natural disaster:

Educate. From storm education to disaster planning to first aid and CPR prep, be sure that everyone in your home has a clear understanding of what to do in any situation that may occur during and after a natural disaster and how best to keep everyone safe.
Have a communication plan. Disaster strikes quickly, so it’s possible your family will not be together when that happens. Your family and emergency contacts should know and understand a clear communication plan. This includes the who, when, where, why, and how of contacting each other.
Adjust for disabilities. If anyone in your family has a disability requiring special equipment, medication, or assistance, make sure that everyone knows how to support them best and adjust your plan as needed.
Plan for pets. Pets often don’t react well in sudden, disastrous circumstances. Though you can’t prepare your pet for these situations, you can account for their safety by updating their ID information, including them in your evacuation and sheltering-in-place plans, or placing them in a safe shelter nearby if absolutely necessary.
List emergency contacts. Create a list of emergency contacts, including nearby family and out-of-town relatives or friends unlikely to be affected by the disaster. This way, you can let them know your situation and have a safe place to stay.
Review insurance and inventory items. Take the time to thoroughly review your home insurance coverage and all inventoried items.
Prep and digitize documents. Safely store and digitize any important medical, personal, or financial documents that could be damaged by water, fire, debris, or mold.
Review your emergency kit. Review the emergency supply checklist below and store these kits in a safe and accessible place in your home, vehicle, and/or an additional shelter location.
Prepare your home. Depending on the type of disaster you’re anticipating, you may need to prep your yard, home exterior, and interior. Remove hazardous items from your yard, seal and cover windows and doors, and be ready to switch your power off.
Prepare your vehicle. If you are advised to evacuate, you’ll want to make sure your car is ready to go. Fill up on gas, inspect your tires, check your oil, stock up your vehicle with supplies, and park it in a safe space.

Related Content: Storm Safety Tips for Protecting Electronics

Know What To Do After a Natural Disaster

Once authorities have advised that it’s safe to leave your current shelter in place, follow these steps to dealing with the aftermath of a natural disaster:

Check on your family and neighbors. The first thing you should do is make sure that everyone is safe and unharmed. If anyone nearby needs medical attention, call for help immediately.
Find shelter (as needed). If your home is severely damaged or you’re without shelter, find an emergency shelter near you by texting SHELTER and the zip code of your location to 4FEMA (43362) or listening to local authorities for aid and support near you.
Inspect your home. Inspect your house for damage, but remain cautious of hidden safety hazards such as contaminated water, gas leaks, chemical spills, broken glass, loose electrical wiring, fallen debris, dangerous animals, and more.
Document damage. For any damage you find, take pictures and document the areas of your home affected by the disaster.

Create A Natural Disaster Preparedness Checklist

After you’ve developed and communicated a clear plan for you and your family, create a disaster readiness supply list in case of emergency. Be prepared with one or more kits full of the following supplies:

Waterproof bins or bags for storing items
Water (multiple gallons per person for drinking/sanitation)
Food (non-perishable)
First-aid kit
Back-up prescription medication, devices, or items
Personal hygiene items
Extra clothes and toiletries
Pet supplies (if applicable)
Local map
Emergency whistle
Batteries and chargers
Battery-powered flashlights, radios, cell phone
Sleeping bags
Matches
Wrenches or pliers
Toilet paper
Cash or traveler’s checks
Fire extinguisher
Disinfectant

Can We Prevent Natural Disasters?

Unfortunately, no. Natural disasters have always been a part of our environment. That being said, studies show that climate change can affect natural disasters and increase their frequency and severity. This means we do have the power to reduce the effects of climate change by reducing our carbon footprint and overall waste. This includes opting for more sustainable products and practices, recycling as much as possible, and reusing or restoring items for more prolonged use. This is especially true for electronics and textiles, which contribute the most to environmental pollution.

Recover After a Natural Disaster with Prism Specialties

In the unfortunate circumstance that your home or business is affected by a natural disaster, Prism Specialties offers restoration solutions to get your day-to-day back to normal. We restore electronics, textiles, art, and documents from fire, water, and mold damage. Count on our experts to get there quickly and help save you time and money in the aftermath of a disaster. Call (888) 826-9429 or submit your claim online.