Making A Plan

3/30/2022 (Permalink)

One of the biggest mistakes any family can make is failing to anticipate disaster striking home. Home fires, floods, lightning strikes, earthquakes, tornadoes, etc., all can happen and often with very little warning. SERVPRO of LBL North is taking the initiative in its region to ensure the communities it serves are aware of the importance of planning properly. Taking some tips from Ready.gov, we would like to share some of those tips to our SERVPRO community.

1. Receiving Warnings: In the present day, most people have at minimum one smartphone in the home. However, if these smartphones are on silent, vibrate, or are powered down, how else will you receive notice of danger, be it weather or otherwise. Do you have carbon monoxide or smoke detectors in the home? Are the batteries changed routinely? If not, it may be worth your while to either install these devices, or set up a schedule to begin replacing these batteries at the minimum twice annually.
2. Shelter Plan: In the event your home suffers a disaster, which makes living in it temporarily impossible, or dangerous to your health, where will you go? In some cases, your insurance policy may contain provisions which will cover temporary lodging in a local hotel. Perhaps you could make emergency arrangements with a family member, or a neighbor. A shelter plan absolutely MUST be part of your contingency, and all members of the household should know this plan.
3. Where to Go: In the event of a fire, earthquake, tornado strike, etc., where your home is affected while you and your loved ones are in it, a plan should be made as to where to assemble should everyone need to quickly evacuate the home. Perhaps at the end of the driveway, the mailbox, the neighbors house. These are just some examples of where families could agree to meet in the rare event of a disaster strike. Make sure everyone knows the route to get to the assembly point, and that it is one that is familiar to all members of the household.
4. Communication Plan: In this day and age where families are constantly on the go, there is a chance that when disaster strikes some members of the household may not be home. Consider a communication plan that everyone agrees on, and that everyone is aware of that resides within the home. It is also important that immediate family members outside of the home, or neighbors should be included on this emergency plan. In the event an emergency strikes the home, the communication plan should be implemented immediately, with detailed instructions provided as to the 1) the type of disaster, 2) where the family will stay in the event the residence is uninhabitable or a danger to enter, 3) any additional instructions necessary.

These emergency plans should be communicated and discussed with all members of the family, even the little ones, especially since a fire or other emergency could leave the little ones separated from the rest of the family during the event. Find creative ways to share fire safety, earthquake and other natural disaster drills with the little ones and rehearse those on a routine basis. More information can be found by visiting the resources provided below.

Lastly, allow SERVPRO of LBL North to come out and provide to you a free Emergency Readiness Plan (ERP) which we will keep on file in the event disaster strikes your home. This will enable the insurance company, SERVPRO, and other entities that will respond to the scene to quickly assess the important components, and begin to restore your home back “Like it never even happened.”