and You’ve stocked your home with items such as food, water, a flashlight and radio and extra batteries. Maybe you’ve reached out to some neighbors or joined an online group so you can share information, which will really come in hand in case of emergency. And hopefully you’ve also had the ability to stash some cash away in your home and perhaps even set up an emergency bank account.

As September’s National Threat Preparedness Month draws to a close, it’s time to go over the last aspect that the Ready Campaign emphasizes: “Get Involved! Be a Part of Something Larger.”

Now we can take what we’ve learned out into the community at large, whether that is a college campus, your office or place of business or your church or house of worship. The Ready Campaign’s website has a lot of good advice and step-by-step plans on how you can accomplish those goals.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security even offers specific programs for, say, college campuses: The National Seminar and Tabletop Exercise Series for Institutions of Higher Learning, or NTTX, which meets in different locations to go over a drill with attendees. And there are items you can check off a list at your campus: Make sure your school has emergency procedures in place. Sign up to receive alerts from your school in case of an emergency, such as an active shooter or a natural disaster. Know how to get in touch with family and friends if phones are down, maybe by texting instead.

You also mark yourself safe on social media and at this Red Cross website, safeandwell.communityos.org/cms/index.php.

And how about your workplace? Businesses can do much to prepare for the impact of the many hazards they face in today’s world, including natural hazards like floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and widespread serious illnesses such as the H1N1 flu virus pandemic.

Workers can form a committee whose members can examine risks and hazards and ways to reduce them, as well as create a plan to react to an emergency. The plan can even be tested and evaluated. According to FEMA, up to 40 percent of businesses do not recover after experiencing a major disaster.

As for houses of worship, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) offers advice on ways to protect them in case of an unexpected occurrence, such as an active shooter, which unfortunately draws on headlines of recent events, including just this past weekend in a Nashville suburb. People who are interested in this training can go to fema.gov/faith-resources to learn more. That web page will lead to a 45-minute interactive, online training video that can be taken not only by congregants with active shooter concerns, but by all citizens who frequent locations such as workplaces and school campuses who potentially could be confronted with this situation.

The site also offers courses and advice to prepare for other types of disasters, such as fires at a house of worship.

Finally, there is a local course you can take that can teach you how to respond in a disaster. The Monongalia County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) teaches classes periodically through the Monongalia County Health Department. The course educates people about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization and disaster medical operations. To learn more about Monongalia County CERT, check out certmonongaliawv.weebly.com or call the health department at 304-598-5100 for more information.

It’s not fun to think about the unexpected happening. But in this day and age, we know it’s the right thing to do, and being prepared could make all the difference. You can’t necessarily prevent a potentially dangerous event from happening, but you can get ready for how you deal with it.

We’ve all heard of saving for a rainy day. But when it comes to being prepared, that rainy day could be a hurricane, a tornado, a flood, a fire or any other unexpected event that will impact your life and perhaps your home.

That’s why a week of September’s National Threat Preparedness Month is devoted to the topic of “Practice and Build Out Your Plans.”

In the previous weeks, we’ve gone over what to do in an emergency, not only about calling 911 but also being prepared in case first responders cannot get to you immediately. Some great ways to do that are to have items on hand in your home such as a three-day supply of food and water for all residents, including pets, as well as familiarizing yourself with evacuation routes and area shelters.

Now it’s time to think about getting your finances in order, as well as important papers that you might need during or in the aftermath of a disaster.

The Ready Campaign at ready.gov has some tips for creating an Emergency Financial First Aid Kit, and it requires more than just setting up an account where you can deposit money in case of a crisis.

The first step is to get your information together—not only your finances but also critical personal, household and medical data that could come in handy during a time of need. Household data can include photo IDs and birth certificates for everyone in the family, Social Security cards to apply for disaster assistance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), paperwork proving military service and identification tags for pets.

This is also a good time to make a list of important telephone contact numbers, not only of friends, family and relatives but also insurance agents and other professionals whose help you might need. You very well may have some of these numbers in your cell phone, but if you lost it or were unable to recharge it, it can be critical to have this information in a separate place.

Other documents to get in order are housing payments, insurance policies to re-establish financial accounts and tax statements to provide contact information for financial and legal providers and to apply for FEMA disaster assistance.

As for finances, you might want to consider saving money in an emergency savings account to be used in any crisis. Whether or not that is feasible, you should have a small amount of cash at home in a safe place. It’s important to have some small bills on hand because ATMs and/or credit cards might not work during a disaster. You also might need sources of income to maintain payments and credit.

And if you are still getting your checks in the mail, you might consider switching to electronic payments. A disaster can disrupt mail service, and automatic deposit also eliminates the risk of stolen checks. Federal benefit recipients can sign up by calling 800-333-1795 or by going online to fiscal.treasury.gov/GoDirect/. Or get the Direct Express prepaid debit card, which is designed as a safe and easy alternative to paper.

It’s also time to look into various types of insurance that you might need, including health, life and property insurance whether you are a homeowner or a renter. Review existing policies to make sure that what you already have in place will be sufficient for you and your family for all possible hazards.

Of course, homeowners’ insurance usually does not cover flooding, and with Hurricanes Harvey and Irma demonstrating unusual strength, as well as the occurrence of devastating floods in West Virginia during the last two summers, you might want to re-think that.

Homeowners in certain areas deemed flood hazards might be required to purchase flood insurance. Also, following the receipt of federal disaster assistance, there is an obtain-and-maintain requirement for homeowners who wish to be eligible for assistance in the future.

FEMA also operates the National Flood Insurance Program (www.FloodSmart.gov). Renters and homeowners who live in National Flood Insurance Program-participating communities can purchase a policy through FEMA.

If your home isn’t in a participating community, you can go through your insurance agent. Floods can happen anywhere, FEMA notes. The agency’s literature states that more than 20 percent of flood claims come from properties outside high-risk flood zones, and that floods are the most common and costly disasters in the United States. Premiums might be lower for low-risk homes as well.

It’s a lot to think about, but with the images of Harvey and Irma still fresh in our imaginations, examining the choices and taking these steps can take a burden off your mind.

Last spring on a comfortable weekend day, the power went out. My husband and I had lived in our home for six months and we didn’t know many of our neighbors. After we bought our house and got settled, the days grew long, winter descended and we hunkered down. We had met our elderly next-door-neighbor, Rose, so while my husband called the power company, I went outside to make sure she was OK. Others had done the same thing. Together we discussed checking on Rose, and as a bonus, I became even more familiar with my new turf.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but as mild of an incident as the power outage was, it was the first step on what to do in an emergency.

September is National Preparedness Month, promoted by the national Ready Campaign. The Ready Campaign breaks down being prepared into four steps, and today we’ll be focusing on step two: Plan to Help Your Neighbor and Community.

Using the outage as an example, we of course needed the power company to fix the problem. What would we do in the meantime? As it turns out, the power was only off for an hour or two on a mild spring day. We didn’t have to worry about being in the dark or being too hot or cold and we also didn’t end up losing our refrigerated and frozen food. It was just a brief interruption of the plans we had for the day, and it ended up serving as a great time to meet neighbors.

But what if it had happened at night and in more inclement weather? What if the power outage had been longer in duration? I’ve had that experience and I’m sure many of you have as well. This is where the advice of the Ready Campaign comes in handy: You are the help until help arrives.

And what if the incident isn’t a power outage but instead a fire or a car accident? Then, instead of calling the power company, the Ready Campaign wants to make sure you call 911, even if you think other people are calling as well. You can also think ahead of how you would handle a call to 911, when you are calm. After all, during an incident, anxiety might get the best of you. The Ready Campaign has some good advice: Let the 911 operator guide you through the call. Provide as much specific information as you can and answer the operator’s questions.

As you wait for first responders, is there anything else you can do to help? If a car accident happened in front of your house, can you try to help the drivers or passengers? You can watch a video and play an interactive game that gives instruction on what you can do in these types of situations. One first responder says that it’s a rare occasion when an ambulance shows up at an emergency in which a bystander isn’t already trying to help. The training offers handy tips on how to maximize your efforts.

What else can you do? Another suggestion is to identify your gas, electrical and water shut-off locations so you can turn them off in an emergency. And as noted before, getting to know your neighbors is a good idea. Discussing how you would respond to an emergency with them is an even better one.

A logical place to start is neighborhood associations. Check out this website to find out about a group near you. Many of these neighborhoods also have Facebook pages that you can join to interact with other Morgantown residents. The ones in South Park, First Ward and Suncrest are particularly active, giving citizens a platform to talk about anything from car break-ins and lost dogs to yard sales. Imagine how helpful those sites—and the connections—could be when a real emergency arises.

There might be other organizations to check out as well. Ready.gov recommends Citizen Corps Council, USAonWatch (Neighborhood Watch) teams, Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), Fire Corps units, Volunteers in Police Service (VIPS) units, and Medical Reserve Corps units. You can also call your local police or fire department and ask for guidance from them.

Another great source is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And this Friday, September 15, is National PrepareAthon Day. It’s a grassroots campaign that educates while you participate. A site provides tips on how to do basic preparation, like documenting and safeguarding your property, to encouraging you to hold a drill so you can figure out how you and your neighbors can handle an emergency.

So get cracking, and be safe out there.

A man cries as he clutches his dog in front of what used to be his home. A tired and bedraggled woman sits on a cot in an emergency shelter. Families escape in rowboats floating down streets where they once walked and drove. News footage from Houston keeps on coming, watched by a nation that feels a combination of horror and empathy upon witnessing the upheaval of an urban center’s way of life.  And now Irma is taking aim at Florida.

West Virginians are no strangers to flooding but seeing the remnants of Harvey plowing through Texas and Louisiana makes us feel a variety of emotions, including, “What if that happened here?”

And that’s why being prepared is so important. September is National Preparedness Month, promoted by the national Ready Campaign.

The Ready Campaign is breaking down being prepared into four steps, and today we’ll be focusing on the first one, which is to make a plan for yourself, your family and your friends.

First up is figuring out how you will know an emergency is on the way. In this day and age of cell phones and a 24-hour news cycle, this can easier than ever. Also in play is IPAWS, or the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System that was developed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. IPAWS can deliver a Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) via a 90-chararacter text to mobile devices in case of emergency. The WEA will tell you the type of alert and what you should do in response.

Texting also might be the best way to contact loved one in an emergency, as it is not unprecedented for cell phone service to be interrupted or spotty during chaotic circumstances. Plus, it’s good to have a back-up plan for your family to have a rendezvous location in case you can’t contact each other when a situation arises. Create a paper copy of contact information for everyone in the family, along with information for doctors or other medical facilities, schools and service providers. Make sure everyone keeps a copy in a purse, backpack or wallet. If you do this online at ready.gov/make-a-plan, you can print out a wallet-sized card.

Next up is figuring out where to take shelter. If you can shelter at home, the location inside your house can vary depending on the type of emergency. For instance, in the case of a tornado, you would want to stay in a basement or an interior room that doesn’t have outside walls or windows.

Other places to shelter also might include your place of employment, with friends or family outside the hazard area or in a mass care facility operated by a disaster relief group. The type of shelter you seek can depend on your circumstances as well as the type of emergency.

In case you do need to shelter inside your home, you should stock up on supplies to have on hand. These include at least a three-day supply of food and water for each member of your family, as well as any necessary medications. It’s also wise to have a battery-operated radio, extra batteries and a flashlight.

And don’t forget your pets. The Ready Campaign has created a plan just for pets. Disaster relief workers have realized first-hand that the effort to save pets has motivated people to stay at home rather than seek a safe shelter or otherwise put them in additional danger. So more and more, pets are included in the planning process for when the unexpected happens. It was heartwarming to see people with their pooches in Houston shelters. And it’s also a good idea to create a separate emergency kit for Fido and Fluffy that includes food and water. Also have photos handy in case you get separated, and make a list of emergency shelters that accept pets.

The next step is to figure out evacuation routes, alternate routes and potential destinations if you do need to leave your home. If you anticipate a potential emergency, make sure to keep your gas tank full.  You also need to have a plan to maintain contact with your family as well as to re-unite in case you become separated from each other or are not together at the outset of a disaster.

And finally, take the time to go over these steps with your family. Hold regular household meetings to make sure everyone understands the plans that have been created.

These are the basic tips to be ready for the unexpected. For more information on how you can be prepared, check out the Ready Campaign’s website. You also might want to consider participating in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Prepareathon Day, which this year takes place on September 15. Find out more at community.fema.gov.