Quick Emergency Preparedness Tip #1: Sign Up for Facebook or Twitter Updates from FEMA and Your Local Emergency Authority
As I wrote about last year, if you are on Facebook or Twitter, it is a really good idea to “Like” or “Follow” FEMA and your local emergency management association. You will be among the first to know about any pending emergency situations pertinent to your area and get helpful tips.
For example, FEMA has been encouraging people to get prepared for hurricanes since at least June and after Hurricane Irene, the Virginia Department of Emergency Management has been posting tips on everything from where to find emergency shelters to how to safely operate generators and chainsaws.
If you do only one emergency preparedness task this month, take one minute and do this one!
- FEMA’s Facebook page
- FEMA’s Twitter Feed
- FEMA indexed map of state and local emergency management agencies
*If you don’t use Facebook or Twitter, there is an alternate low-tech solution you can use to get the same information. All Twitter accounts and public-oriented Facebook pages can be viewed in a standard Internet browser. So, you can just bookmark the Twitter feed or Facebook page you might need to keep up with and check in with it from time to time or during an emergency. Of course, you won’t be alerted when the page/feed is updated and you won’t be able to comment or tweet back to the writer of the message without creating a Facebook or Twitter account, but you can at least view any information that has been posted. You can try this out by visiting the links I provided above.