In addition to hurricanes, May is also a month to learn and prepare for wildfires so today you get a bonus toolkit! Wildland fires are a significant threat to lives and property in the U.S and deserve your attention and preparedness considerations. The combination of drought, warmer temperatures, high winds and an excess of dried vegetation in forests and grasslands has made fire seasons progressively worse over the past 50 years. In the last decade alone, wildfires have burned over 80 million acres of our nation. According to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), 2015 saw one of the worst fire seasons in decades, with over 10 million acres burned.
We want the whole community to know what to do before, during, and after a wildfire, and most importantly, how to prevent one from starting. One of the ways to do this is by promoting and participating in National Wildfire Community Preparedness Day on May 7, 2016, sponsored by the National Fire Protection Association. Learn your evacuation routes and plan to evacuate if advised by local authorities. Have emergency supplies in place at home, at work, and in the car. Check your insurance policies to ensure you have enough coverage. Create a communications plan with your family, and as always, listen to local officials.
The folks at Ready.Gov created a toolkit to make it easy for you and your organization to promote this campaign and help your stakeholders be better prepared for disasters, particularly on social media. You can find the Wildfire Safety toolkit at the following link: https://www.ready.gov/wildfire-toolkit