Public Health Preparedness

 

There are many reasons to prepare your health for an emergency. They start with your family and friends and extend to your neighbors and community at large. But most Americans do not have supplies set aside or plans in place to protect themselves or their family’s health and safety in the event of  natural disaster, a power outage, or a flu pandemic.

The good news is that it is never too late to prepare for a public health emergency. You can take actions, make healthy choices, and download free resources to help you prepare for, adapt to, and cope with adversity.

Learn how to prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies then share what you’ve learned with others to help build more resilient communities.

Create an emergency water supply. Store at least a 3-day supply of water for each person & each pet, more if you live in a hot climate, for a pregnant woman, & for people who are sick. Try to store a 2-week supply, if possible.

 

Prepare To Take Action:

Natural disasters, disease outbreaks, and emergencies can have widespread and even long-lasting impacts on supplies, services, and the public health and health care systems. Don’t wait for an emergency to happen to prepare. Use the time before and between events to gather essential supplies, learn self-help skills, and build the self-confidence you need to respond quickly and constructively in a crisis. When services and supplies are limited, it is important to have the personal needs, prescriptions, paperwork, power sources, and practical skills you need to respond.

Be prepared for when access to services and resources is limited by having emergency supplies that include:

  • Personal needs: Gather food, water, & medical supplies to last at least 72 hours.

  • Prescriptions: Prepare an emergency supply of prescription medications.

  • Paperwork: Collect and protect important documents and medical records.

  • Power sources: Prepare for power outages with backup power sources.

  • Practical skills: Learn self-help and life-saving skills to use during an emergency.

Create Community

Community health resilience measures the ability of people, businesses, governments, nonprofit groups, and faith-based organizations to work together to create systems that can withstand, adapt to, and recover from a public health emergency. Ways you can create community is to care for each other, get involved to improve everyone’s resilience, lead by example, and improve access to support the needs of the whole community.

 Plan Ahead

Involve your entire family in planning and practicing how to stay healthy, informed, calm, and connected during an emergency.