Prepare Yourself

When disaster strikes, the most important person is you. If you are well prepared, you will be in a better position to help your family, friends and neighbours. Your first priority is always personal safety and reducing the risk of injury. Most people survive disasters. Following a disaster, your family’s safety, health, comfort and general well-being may be entirely in your hands.

Major disasters may disrupt the day-to-day functions of a community and seriously affect infrastructure and public services:

• stores may close or quickly run out of supplies,
• businesses, schools and public offices may shut down,
• hospitals may be overwhelmed,
• transportation and communications may be limited, and
• utilities like water, electricity and gas may be unavailable or unreliable.

The 13 municipalities and three electoral areas in the Capital Regional District together prepared a Prepare Yourself workbook that outlines the key steps on how to prepare for emergencies in the Capital Region: Make an Emergency Plan, Assemble Emergency Kits and Know the Risks Locally. Worksheets to help you and your family in all stages of an emergency are located in this workbook. You can tear or print these out, fill in your information and refer to them at any time.

If you would like a hard copy of the Prepare Yourself workbook, contact the Fire Department by email or phone 250-656-2121.