One of the best ways to prepare for weather emergencies is to have an established family emergency plan at the ready.

If your family has put an emergency plan in place, be sure to discuss, practice and review it at the start of each weather season so your family knows exactly what to do.

If you’ve not yet created a family emergency plan, take a look at these considerations when you prepare one:

1. How will emergency alerts and warnings be received?

Thanks to technology today, emergency alerts and warnings are in our pockets, briefcases, backpacks or purses with the use of smartphones equipped with a weather app or Google. This allows you to quickly receive emergency alerts, giving you valuable time to act in a severe weather situation. These warnings and alerts are available over radio and TV in the event you do not have a smartphone.

2. What type of storm shelter is available?

If you live in an area where tornadoes are common, you’ll want to be in the lowest part of your home, like a basement or an interior room on the lowest level that is away from corners, windows, doors and outside walls. Be aware, however, that tornadoes aren’t the only weather circumstance requiring a form of storm shelter, and you can find out more about these situations that call for them by visiting ready.gov.

3. What is your evacuation route?

You should always have evacuation routes mapped out for escape for things such as hurricanes, flooding and fires, which can force you from your home in a hurry. It’s wise to have multiple routes in the event one is impassable, and be sure to take your pets into consideration and find places to stay along the way if you have furry family members taking shelter also.

4. How will the family keep in touch?

Cell phone are a common commodity nowadays, and it is easy to rely on them to keep in touch with your family. But, in some circumstances, that will not be possible.

Cell phone towers can be taken out by the weather, the cell phones can be lost or left behind, and batteries need charging, which will be hard to do when there is no power to recharge them. Your family will need an emergency communication plan in place, as well as a pre-determined safe meeting place so that you can all meet there if separated.

If a storm does cause damage to your home or business, don’t hesitate to call your friends at SERVPRO® of Garden Grove East/Anaheim Central to get the cleanup and restoration process started.