It doesn’t take a Hurricane to require the need for Emergency Preparedness. In fact, the last three days in South Tampa have given me ample reason to think again about preparing for rising water or an evacuation. Here is a picture of our street in South Tampa, I am sure many of you have similar pictures of your area.
With this in mind I pulled together various
resources that I thought were helpful in both preparing for an emergency as well as staying informed on what is occurring.
1. Prepare an Emergency Supply Kit – this website at www.ready.gov/kit is a good start for identifying those items that should be in your Kit.
2. Stay Informed – in this day of social media and news in an instance there are plenty of resources to utilize in order to stay updated on events. Here are a few I use
A. Hillsborough County Alert Center
B. City of Tampa News – I actually have alerts sent to me directly by signing up at @lert Tampa
3. Stay Smart – I was amazed how over the last few days the number of videos and personal accounts of Tampa residents trying to drive through flooded streets. I did a quick search and found that the National Weather Services (NWS) has a public service announcement called “Turn Around, Don’t Drown” (watch their short video). They say that it only takes 12 inches of flowing water to carry off a small car; and 18 to 24 inches for a larger vehicle. While it may be tempting to get where you are going, sometimes we just need to take a moment and think through it.
We are fortunate to live in such a great waterfront community, particularly with the many days of sunshine. This being said, we should always remember that the rains will come and can come fast and heavy. In times like these I go back to the days of being in the Boy Scouts and their motto “Be Prepared”
