September is National Preparedness Month

ZANESVILLE, OH – September is National Preparedness Month, a nationwide reminder of how important it is to be prepared for emergencies.

This month is all about taking steps to stay safe, whether it’s knowing where to evacuate, identifying safe shelters, or having an emergency supply kit ready with essentials like food, water, and first aid supplies.

“You need to have water in your kit. Enough water for one gallon per person per day. If you’ve got four people in your family, then you need to have four gallons of water. Whether it’s individual bottles or the gallon jugs. You need a kind of food that’s nonperishable. If you buy canned food that doesn’t have a pop lid, you need to make sure you have a can opener so that you can open them up,” Muskingum County Emergency Management Agency Director Jeff Jadwin said.

Staying informed through emergency alerts is also key to responding quickly when it matters most.

“You can use weather apps like WHIZ to get updates. Or you can get our Reverse 911. The website for that is CitizensAlert60.org. You can call here, and we can sign you up for it. We send out alerts from us, from the National Weather Service, and the sheriff’s office. There’s a lot of alerts that go out through our system and it depends on what you want to sign up for. We give you options,” Jadwin said.

Disasters can strike at any time, so take time this September to make your plan and stay safe.

More information and tips can be found on the Muskingum County EMA website.

Muskingum County Emergency Management Agency – Homeland Security (muskingumcountyoh.gov)