By Dana Bryson
September is National Preparedness Month, when people are encouraged to prepare for disasters and emergencies to ensure their own safety and that of others. This year, the Conference has a specific request — see below.
Though preparedness is important year-round, September is a time to remind everyone how and why to make emergency plans and take proactive steps to prepare for emergencies, including natural disasters such as wildfires, flooding, earthquakes, windstorms, extreme heat, and landslides.
Preparedness reduces risks to life, property, and the environment, and strengthens community resilience. This month is a great time to take small steps to make a big difference in being prepared.
We recommend four core steps for preparedness (Go to Ready.gov for more information on each.):
- Make a Plan: Develop a household emergency plan that includes evacuation routes, meeting points, and communication strategies for family members and pets.
- Build a Kit: Assemble an emergency supply kit with essentials such as food, water, medications, first aid supplies, flashlights, batteries, and important documents.
- Stay Informed: Sign up for local warning systems, monitor the Emergency Alert System, NOAA Weather Radio, and official social media channels for timely alerts.
- Get Involved: Participate in community preparedness programs and support organizations like the Red Cross or the PNW Conference Disaster Response ministry to improve community readiness.
You can learn more about disaster readiness through the UMCOR Connecting Neighbors program. It helps prepare individuals, families, communities, and churches through the Ready Congregants, Ready Churches, and Ready Response training units. Contact the PNW Connecting Neighbors Coordinator, Jeff Nichols at jdnichol@hotmail.com, for more information on training for your church.
The PNW Conference of The United Methodist Church is offering an opportunity to Get Involved (Step 4). Hygiene Kits (instructions) and Period Packs (instructions) are needed to replace the supplies distributed to survivors of this year’s unprecedented flooding and fires in Washington State. Please coordinate with your church to consider providing these essential supplies so we’re ready when the next need comes. Go to PNW Disaster Relief Kit Mission to support this important need.
A hygiene kit is a small thing — soap, a towel, a comb. But it arrives at a moment when almost everything else is gone, and it says something a press release cannot: someone knew you would need this and thought of you before you asked. That is what it looks like to love a neighbor we haven’t met yet. Preparedness, for the church, is less about fear of what’s coming than about being ready to be useful when it does.
Dana Bryson serves as Co-Disaster Response Coordinator for the Pacific Northwest Conference of The United Methodist Church.
