How To Plan

Emergency situations can pop up at any time for a number of reasons: Home Fire, Power Outage, Thunderstorms, Wildfires, Winter Storms, Landslides, Flooding and Heat Wave Advisories just to name a few. To plan your evacuation, if needed, review Pine Mountain Evacuation Routes at the bottom of this page.

Build A Kit: for Emergencies

DisasterSafety.org = Provides preparation for Flood, Hail, Hurricane, Tornado, Water/Rain, Wildfire, Winter Weather and Business Protection

Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety’s website provides additional information on how to be prepared for any home disaster. Look around their website for excellent information.

Table of Contents on How to Plan

Keep Contacts Updated:

Keep all your contacts updated across all of your various devices, including your phone, cell phone, email and social media. This will make it easy to reach out to the right people quickly to get updated information and supply updates. You may consider creating a group list of your top/key contacts. If you don’t have already set up:

Learn how to send updates via text and internet through your mobile phone and social channels – just in case voice communications are not available. Text messages and the internet often have the ability to work in the event land-line phone service is interrupted.
Keep extra batteries for your phone in a safe place or purchase a solar-powered or hand crack charger. These chargers are good as emergency tools that will keep your laptop and other small electronics working. If you own a car, have a phone charger designed for your automobile if you lose power in your home.
Program “In Case of Emergency” (ICE) contacts into your cell phone so emergency personnel can contact those people for you if you are unable to use your phone. Let your ICE contacts know that they are programmed into your phone and inform them of any medical issues or other special needs you may have.
If you have a traditional landline (non-broadband or VOIP) phone, keep at least one non-cordless receiver in your home because it will work in case you lose power.
If you are evacuated and have call-forwarding on your home phone, forward your home number to your cell phone number.
If you do not have a cell phone, keep a prepaid phone card to use if needed during or after a disaster.
Prepare a family contact sheet. This should include at least one out-of-town contact that may be better able to reach family members in an emergency.
Have a battery powered or hand cranked radio or television available with spare batteries.

Additional Tips for Phone Calls:

Keep all phone calls brief. If you need to use a phone, try to convey only vital information to emergency personnel and/or family.
If you are unsuccessful in completing a call using your cell phone, wait ten seconds before redialing to help reduce network congestion.
Conserve your cell phone battery by reducing the brightness of your screen, placing your phone in airplane mode and closing apps you are not using that draw power.
If you lose power, you can charge your cell phone in your car. Just be sure your car is in a well-ventilated place (remove it from the garage) and do not go to your car until any danger has passed. You can also listen to your car radio for important news alerts.
If you do not have a hands-free device in your car, stop driving or pull over to the side of the road before making a call. Do not text on a cell phone, talk or “tweet” without a hands free device while driving.
Immediately following a disaster, resist using your mobile device to watch streaming videos, download music or videos or play video games — all which can add to network congestion. Limiting use of these services can help potentially life-saving emergency calls get through to 9-1-1 for other people.
For non-emergency communications, use text messaging, email or social media instead of making voice calls on your cell phone to avoid tying up voice networks. Data-based services like texts and emails are less likely to experience network congestion. you can also use social media to post your status to let family and friends know you are okay.

Stay or Get Tech Organized:

Store your important documents, such as personal financial records in a password protected area in a Cloud or a secure flash or jump drive that you can keep readily available. This flash drive can be kept on a key ring so it can be accessed from any computer, anytime, anywhere. Remember important documents such as:

Personal & property insurance
ID: Driver’s license / passports for all family members
Banking information

Don’t Forget Your Pets:

Store your pet’s veterinary medical records documents online
Consider an information digital implant
A current photo of your pet in your online kit to aid in case you are separated.

Your family may not be together when an emergency or disaster strikes, so it’s important to plan in advance.

Make sure to share documents with family members, friends, neighbors who will also need to access it in an emergency or crisis.
When handling personal and sensitive information, always keep your data private and share it with only those who will need access in case of an emergency.

Have a Plan for your Pets

Please don’t forget to take your pets into consideration when making plans for you and your family. Our pets do not understand when we go into a panic when faced with a disaster. They do not know what we have planned so when they sense danger, they create their own plan. Our job is to keep them safe, secure and calm — as much as possible.

1. Start Getting Ready Now

ID your pet. Make sure all cat and dog collars and identification tags are up to date.
Put your cell phone number on your pet’s tag.
Put together their disaster emergency kit
Find a safe place to stay ahead of time. Make sure you find pet-friendly lodgings and have their information close at hand.
Make arrangements with friends and/or relatives
Consider a kennel or veterinarian’s office
Check with your local animal shelter if they can provide foster care or shelter in case of an emergency.
Plan for your pet in case you’re not home at the time of the emergency
If you have a pet-sitter, they maybe able to help.

2. If you evacuate, take your pet!!

Rule #1: If it isn’t safe for you, it isn’t safe for your pets
Rule #2: Evacuate early! Don’t wait for a mandatory evacuation order

3. If you stay home, do it safely

Close off or eliminate unsafe nooks and crannies where frightened cats may hide
Move dangerous items such as tools or toxic products
Bring your pets indoors as soon as local authorities say trouble is on the way
If you have a room that can be designated as a “safe room” – put all your emergency supplies in that room in advance.
Listen to the radio

4. After the disaster

Don’t allow your pets to roam loose – familiar smells may be gone and they can get disorientated
While assessing the damage, keep dogs on leashes and cats in carriers inside the house
Be patient with your pets
Check your home and surrounding area for wild animals who may have sought refuge

Disaster Kit for Pets:

According to the Human Society the ideal basic Disaster Kit includes:

Food & Water for 5-days for each pet
Bowls
Manual Can Opener
Canned Pet Food
Keep an extra gallon of water – in case they get into contact with chemicals
Medications & Medical Records – store in a water proof container
First Aid Kit – having a pet first-aid book is also a good idea.
Cat Litter Box: including litter, litter scoop and garbage bags to collect pet waste
Sturdy leashes, harnesses and carriers to transport pets safely and to ensure they don’t escape.
Make sure your pet is wearing a collar and ID that is up-to-date.
Carriers should be large enough to allow your pet to stand, turn around and lie down comfortably.
Current photos of you with your pet and a detailed description of your pet to help identify them in case you become separated.
Written information about your pet’s eating schedule, medical conditions and behavior issues along with the name and phone number of their veterinarian in case you have to board them in foster care.

Other useful items can include:

Newspaper
Paper towels
Plastic trash bags
Grooming items
Household bleach

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