The colors and sounds of spring are unfortunately not only about beautiful blooms and nature coming to life. It's also about the sky filling with dark, ominous clouds and the sounds of outdoor warning sirens.
Spring is also severe weather season. And planning for severe weather, as both a public communicator and a resident of your community, could be the key to surviving an emergency event. How you are prepared for storm season will make or break your community.
The first way to be prepared is to have a crisis communication plan for your city, county or public agency. After the emergency is not the time to try and plan for communicating critical information to the public.
Your plan should include how you will use your channels to:
Quickly and accurately push out information
What those crucial messages are
Where those messages will go
Who is responsible for getting those messages to the public
Having a crisis communications plan helps your organization speak with one voice during a time when information for your residents is vital.
Planning is also necessary when it comes to safety for you, your family and your community.
Where is your safe room?
Do you have helmets for kids and adults?
Are your communication devices charged?
Do you have backup power?
Do you have all your important documents in a secure location?
Any pre-severe weather communication you post on your website and social media accounts, as well as send out with your newsletters should be designed to remind your residents about the precautions they can take before a storm hits. But you can go even further and work with your emergency management director to put together a severe weather safety kit that covers important preparedness information everyone should have, such as:
Keep a utility bill with your important documents. Why? It is proof that you lived in the house if it is gone.
Don’t forget pets. Have carriers, or in the case of cats, old pillowcases, to keep your pets secure during severe weather.
Know where your important medications are located for easy retrieval before a storm hits.
Have a call tree for family and friends. You'll be able to focus on recovery if you can make one phone call to a family member or friend who can then take care of notifying everyone.
External chargers, even a solar charger, will help make sure you can communicate and access to online resources.
Keep hard sole shoes close by. Glass and debris is not forgiving if you have to navigate a damaged neighborhood.
There are resources that can provide good information, like planning tips from the Ready.gov/plan website. FEMA's (Federal Emergency Management Agency) Emergency Management Institute (EMI) has training for communicators and for public employees and elected officials. You can also take a storm spotter class offered by your county to learn the weather language.
You also should have some form of severe weather communication such as a NOAA weather radio or weather app on your cell phone. And if your city or county has an emergency notification alert system (CodeRED, Nixle, Civic Ready), make sure you are promoting it to your residents. And don’t forget to sign up for yourself.
We have already seen the destruction and deaths from this year’s spring storms. Mitigating the damage to property is difficult with severe weather. But helping to prevent injuries and death may hinge on your ability to plan. Severe weather can occur anytime of the year, your preparedness actions now will pay off as future storms roll in.
DFW Strategic Communications has both communication and emergency management experts on our team to assist with planning and training. Reach out and let us know how we can help you prepare before the next emergency occurs.