National Preparedness Month - September 2014 - Be Disaster Aware, Take Action to Prepare!

  • Published
  • By AFOSI Public Affairs
QUANTICO, Va. --  Department of Defense components partner with the Federal Emergency Management Agency every September for National Preparedness Month (NPM). NPM is an opportunity to ensure our service members, civilians, contractors and installations take action to prepare, now and throughout the year, for the types of emergencies they may encounter.

This year, the theme to NPM is "Be Disaster Aware, Take Action to Prepare." The Ready Campaign established four universal building blocks of emergency preparedness: Be Informed, Make a Plan, Build a Kit and Get Involved.

All Air Force personnel are encouraged to partner with a local civil engineer squadron and emergency management flights and wing public affairs offices to disseminate information to service members, civilians, contractors and other audiences with a focus on individual actions that can be accomplished in order to prepare for potential emergencies, such as having individual and family communication plans and how to identify and reconnect with your family in the event of a disaster.

Here are examples of how you can promote NPM using weekly themes within your units:

Week 1 (September 1-7): Plan how to reconnect and reunite with family following a disaster. Emphasis is placed on making a family emergency communication plan.

Week 2 (September 8-14): Be Informed: Know your resources. Emphasis is placed on making individuals aware of the resources that most closely align with their planning needs. This could include focusing on how to prepare for different parts of your life and family - children, business, pets, senior citizens, disabled persons, etc.

Week 3 (September 15-21): Know how to build a kit and have what you need. Emphasis is placed on having the emergency supplies you will need for yourself and your family.

Week 4/5 (September 22-30): How to be prepared through practice. Emphasis is focused on registering to participate in America's PrepareAthon! by taking an action, finding and participating in a posted readiness event or sponsoring an event.

Air Force personnel are encouraged to visit the Air Force "Be Ready" website at http://www.beready.af.mil/index.asp. You can also promote the "Be Ready" app, which is available for download onto Apple and Android devices. You can also use the www.ready.gov/prepare for ideas on how to craft and present information to specific audiences and to download the FEMA digital engagement toolkit.

Bottom line, all Air Force personnel can use any of their regular internal outlets to support their local EM office efforts during NPM 2014.