Start with this

If you just want to start improving your readiness, go through this list:

1. Sign up for local emergency alerts

   • Download the FEMA app and follow its setup instructions for where you live and work.
   • Look up your local government's emergency alert system and enroll. If you google "emergency alerts" and your location, you should get somethign relevant. Example: https://sfdem.org/public-alerts

2. Take stock of your needs

   • How many people? Who?
   • Do any have special requirements (medication, mobility, etc.)?
   • Where are they usually?

3. Assess the risks

   • What risks are you likely to face based on where you are and what you do? Consider things like what types of bad weather you get, if any higher risk things like rail, power, or gas lines pass your house, what your crime levels are, the type of community you are in, past problems, etc.
   • How likely are those different risks? Are there higher likelihood problems you haven't considered?
   • What would the likely impact of those events be?

4. Review your current posture

   • How well you handle those emergencies now?
   • Are there obvious gaps in your skills, equipment, etc.?

5. Determine how many resources you want to allocate to preparedness

   • Your goal should be to address high likelihood and/or high impact scenarios, not every possible contingency.
   • Going broke buying stuff makes you less prepared, not more. Financial disasters are also disasters.

6. Act to close your top gaps:

   • If you don't have basic first aid training, get it.
   • If you don't have basic emergency supplies, get them. You probably already have most of them in your kitchen, you just need to pull them together in an accessible form.