The following is from information posted by the City of McMinnville’s CERT Organization.

Make sure your family has a plan in case of an emergency. Before an emergency happens, sit down together and decide how you will get in contact with each other, where you will go, and what you will do in an emergency.

Building a family emergency kit is crucial. During emergencies, you will need to be self-reliant for a period of time. You may want to consider two kits:

• a Go-Bag
• a Stay-at-Home kit.

A Go-bag includes essential items that you will take with you during an evacuation. It should be small and lightweight (like a backpack) and contain only the bare essentials (including copies of IDs and vital documents, a 14-day supply of medications, extra phone chargers, and a few personal items).

A stay-at-home kit is designed for keeping you and your family ready for power outages and other longer-term issues. Make sure your stay-at-home kit includes:

• fourteen days worth of food and water
• personal grooming supplies
• flashlights
• extra batteries
• a fire extinguisher
• copies of important documents

You can stay informed in a number of ways. A battery-powered radio is great for times when the power is out. Having a weather alert radio in your house is a great way to receive disaster information as well as weather warnings. Before disaster strikes, know if you have special needs, be sure to contact 2-1-1 for services that may be available and meet your neighbors.

McMinnville residents have a long history of working together to recover from disaster. Getting to know your neighbors now will help you work with them in the event of a disaster. Meeting your neighbors may also make you aware of those too elderly or too ill to independently plan or prepare themselves for a disaster.