Emergency Preparedness Questionnaire

The following questions will help you determine how prepared your household is for an emergency. The questions will also help you determine what things are missing from you emergency plan.

1. Do you have a 72 hour evacuation kit?
2. Is your 72 hour evacuation kit located where you can grab it and go?
3. Is it of a size and portability that you could carry it for a distance?
4. Would you have sufficient water, food, medicine, and sanitary supplies?
5. Would you have the means to cook food without gas or electricity?
6. Do you have a first aid kit in your home and each car?
7. Do you have work clothes and some tools for minor rescue and clean-up?
8. Do you have emergency cash on hand?
9. Without gas and electricity, do you have the ability to heat at least part of your home?
10. If you need prescription medication, do you have a 2 week supply?
11. Do you have plans for toilet facilities if there is an extended water shortage?
12. Do you have a supply of food, clothing, and fuel for an extended period of time?
13. Do you have a “safe room designated in you home?
14. What will you need to shelter in place?
15. Do you have an emergency survival kit in your car?
16. Do you have a 72 hour kit at work?
17. Have you or your family rehearsed escape routes from your home?
18. Have you identified a safe place outside your home to go if you had to escape in an emergency?
19. Does your family know what to do before, during and after a fire, winter storm, earthquake, or other emergency situation?
20. If you have heavy objects hanging over beds that could fall during an earthquake, have you secured them?
21. Do you have access to an operational flashlight in every occupied bedroom?
22. Do you keep your shoes and a change of clothes by your bed in case of an emergency evacuation?
23. If a water line was ruptured in an emergency, do you know how and where to shut off the main water line to your house?
24. Can this water valve be turned off by hand? Do you have a tool if one is needed?
25. If the gas line was ruptured in an emergency, do you know how and where to turn off the main gas shut off valve?
26. Gas valves usually cannot be turned off by hand. Is there a tool to turn it off located in a handy place to turn it off?
27. Do you have working smoke alarms in the proper places to warn you of fire?
28. In case of a minor fire, do you have a working fire extinguisher that you know how to operate?
29. Do you have duplicate keys and copies of important insurance and other papers stored outside your home?
30. Do you have a functional emergency radio to receive emergency information?
31. Have you established a local phone contact and place to go out side of your neighborhood if you can’t reach home?
32. Have you established an out of state phone contact and do all family members know and have the means to call them?
33. Do you always keep the gas tanks in your car filled at least half way?
34. What route will you take out of your neighborhood if an evacuation became necessary? Do you know what you would take with you? Where will you go?

If you would like more information on emergency preparedness, contact the Smithfield City Police Department for addition pamphlets or visit www.fema.gov or www.redcross.org