September is Emergency Preparedness Month. This is such a critical topic that I focus on it more than once per year.
For my research, I went to the experts at ready.gov to refresh my memory on the essentials. The site makes it so easy to get prepared by breaking it down into weekly themes/actionable items that include:
Ready.gov Weekly Resources
Teach Youth About Preparedness
In this month’s blog, I’m focusing on Week 4 and the resources they provide to educate our youth about getting prepared. They are broken down in to 4 different categories no matter your age or profession:
In addition to these essential links, they even provide a few games to make learning fun for kids and to drive the points home even further. Anyone who knows me knows that I HAD to play at least one of the games to check it out for myself. I chose Disaster Master. Here’s how it works. They present emergency scenarios and them ask questions. If you answer the questions correctly, you earn points to unlock new levels. If you survive all 7 levels plus a bonus round, you can become a Disaster Master! How cool is that for a kid!
Emergencies Included
- Wildfires
- Tornados
- Hurricanes/Blackouts
- Home Fires
- Winter Storms/Extreme Cold
- Tsunami/Earthquakes
- Thunderstorms/Lightning
- Bonus Round: The Hot Seat
The game was great… not only educational but fun (even for me). What I loved about it is that they quiz you on important nuggets of information, immediately let you know whether your answer is correct/incorrect and then take it a step further to explain the correct answer.
Did I score 100%? Truth be told that I did not. I assume that if I did not, others won’t either so please don’t consider the game a waste of time. For example, did you know that if you’re outside and see lightening and cannot count to 30 before hearing it, you have to take cover or leave the area immediately to quickly get indoors? And you can’t go back outside until 30 minutes after the thunder ends. This is called the 30/30 rule. Who knew? I did not!
Many people assume that these nuggets are taught in school but please don’t assume that. Even if they are, they’re worth repeating. Also, keep in mind how COVID has changed the way our kids learn these days. So whether your child learns at school, at home or a combination of the two, I believe it’s the responsibility of every parent/caretaker to teach their child(ren) about emergency preparedness. You don’t have to be a certified educator to do this because ready.gov makes it so easy and so fun so please check it out! And who knows… you may learning something in the process!
One last tidbit I learned… did you know that they sell smoke in a can to test your smoke alarms? I did not!
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Brenda Tringali, CPO® (Certified Professional Organizer)
Organizing | Productivity | Speaker
At Your Fingertips Organizing
Serving Greater Myrtle Beach, SC or “virtually” anywhere via video
Cell/Text: 603.490.6062
Brenda Tringali is the owner of At Your Fingertips Organizing. She provides Speaking, Organizing & Productivity services to Workplace/Residential clients both in person in the greater Myrtle Beach, SC area & “virtually” anywhere else via video, phone, etc. Brenda is an active member of NAPO (National Association of Productivity and Organizing professionals) and the former Chair of NAPOCares, NAPO’s Social Responsibility Committee.