Clay County, KS- September is Preparedness Month, a nationwide effort to remind families and businesses of the importance to being prepared for any kind of emergency.

Pam Kemp, the Clay County Emergency Manager says preparedness month is when FEMA, state, and local Emergency Management reminds everyone it’s time to prepare your home and business for surviving a disaster.

And going into winter, Kemp suggests that families and businesses have alternate sources of heat, plenty of blankets and coats available.

Some top suggestions made is to make sure everyone in the home or business knows the plan to locate everyone in case of an emergency and to have a go bag for at least 72 hours.

Kemp stated that for families living in rural areas, that 72 hours may not be enough, and that it could be much longer than that and that families should plan for at least a week.

One of the most common things forgotten in the go bag is shoes, sweatshirts, and jackets.

In the event your family needs to evacuate, you should be able to grab what you need immediately.

Kemp stated that sometimes the phone call won’t go through when the lines are down or busy but a text message may and give more people the ability to use the system.

You can find more information on building a kit at ready.gov/kit.

Janet Schnell covers state and local news for KFRM and KCLY. You can follow the KCLY or KFRM Facebook page for more stories.

KFRM covers news from across the state of Kansas, the Northern part of Oklahoma, and Southern part of Nebraska.

KCLY coverage area includes the nine counties of Clay, Cloud, Dickinson, Geary, Marshall, Ottawa, Riley, Republic, and Washington.

KCLY or KFRM stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to https://www.kclyradio.com/news/ or https://kfrm.com/