President’s Message – September 2022

The Power of Preparation

September is National Preparedness Month, so I want to remind our members about the power of preparation.

While you don’t have to reach doomsday prepper levels of preparedness, there are several practical steps you can take to keep your household safe. Federal Emergency Management Agency guidelines suggest you:

• Assemble a grab-and-go disaster kit. Include nonperishable food, water, batteries, flashlights, prescription medications, a first-aid kit, a battery-powered radio and phone chargers.
• Develop a plan for communicating with family and friends (text, social media, third party, etc.).
• Keep cash available; during power outages, electronic card readers and cash machines may not work.
• Store important documents such as birth certificates and property deeds in a safe place away from home—for example, a bank safe deposit box.
• Inform neighbors and co-workers of your emergency plans.
• Fill your car with gas.
• Store your supplies together in an easily accessible location.
• Ensure elderly or special needs family members have enough medication and supplies. If they don’t live with you, ask a neighbor to keep tabs on them or consider having your relative stay with you.
• Stock plenty of formula, diapers, medication and other supplies if you have infants or young children so you can weather an outage lasting several days or more.
• Reduce worry and stress by having an emergency plan for family pets. Bring them indoors at the first sign of a storm. Frightened pets can become disoriented during severe weather and may wander off. Microchip your pet and ensure contact information is up to date. Create a pet emergency kit with food, water, medications and other supplies.

At Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative, we care about your safety. Planning for emergencies today can give you more confidence to deal with severe weather and potential outages in the future.

Jimmy Black