Friday, December 12, 2025
Be prepared to go.
Recently, we’ve all been watching in dismay as Los Angeles burns. Most of us know someone who’s been affected—or whose family or friends have been affected. The fires are a stark reminder of how fragile the communities we build are, and how unforgiving a natural disaster can be, whether it’s fire, rain, wind, snow, or flood.
This month, encourage your people to make a plan in case they have to evacuate their homes.
Checklists can be great tools to help you prepare. For emergencies and evacuations, authorities recommend that everyone has a “go bag” with enough drinking water, medicines, food, clothing, etc. to last for several days. You can find a basic checklist for what should be in your go bag here. And there are links on that page to a handy, printable version of the checklist.
In addition to the items already in your go bag, in the aftermath of a disaster, you’ll need access to your important documents. Here’s a checklist of critical documents from FEMA. Make copies of the documents and store them together in a safe place in a waterproof plastic freezer bag that’s easy to access so you can grab it quickly if you have to leave your home in a hurry. Take time to make physical copies of these documents. Don’t just take photos of them and store them on your phone.
In addition to helping you prepare for emergencies, checklists can also help you stay safe. We have a variety of checklists available on our website for free. You can find them here. And we recently published a new checklist about safe driving: Plan for Safe Driving.
We hope that these checklists will help you and your people be prepared and stay safe!
Recently, we’ve all been watching in dismay as Los Angeles burns. Most of us know someone who’s been affected—or whose family or friends have been affected. The fires are a stark reminder of how fragile the communities we build are, and how unforgiving a natural disaster can be, whether it’s fire, rain, wind, snow, or flood.
This month, encourage your people to make a plan in case they have to evacuate their homes.
Checklists can be great tools to help you prepare. For emergencies and evacuations, authorities recommend that everyone has a “go bag” with enough drinking water, medicines, food, clothing, etc. to last for several days. You can find a basic checklist for what should be in your go bag here. And there are links on that page to a handy, printable version of the checklist.
In addition to the items already in your go bag, in the aftermath of a disaster, you’ll need access to your important documents. Here’s a checklist of critical documents from FEMA. Make copies of the documents and store them together in a safe place in a waterproof plastic freezer bag that’s easy to access so you can grab it quickly if you have to leave your home in a hurry. Take time to make physical copies of these documents. Don’t just take photos of them and store them on your phone.
In addition to helping you prepare for emergencies, checklists can also help you stay safe. We have a variety of checklists available on our website for free. You can find them here. And we recently published a new checklist about safe driving: Plan for Safe Driving.
We hope that these checklists will help you and your people be prepared and stay safe!