Are you prepared for a natural disaster?

Are you prepared for a natural disaster?

This is what local counties are asking.

In fact, just last month Jefferson County issued a disaster declaration.

“It’s important to think through the process of what you would do in any of those emergencies,” Rebecca Squires said.

She is the emergency manager for Jefferson County. She said the first thing you should think of for emergency preparedness is a plan.

“A plan will inform everything you do when you have an emergency and not only is it important to have a plan just for your family, but it’s important to know the plans around you. For example, if your kids are at school and something big goes down, what is the school’s plan? Do they bus them home? Do you need to pick them up? It’s important to know what’s going on,” Squires said.

Foods that are shelf stable are the best kinds of food to take because you don’t know if you are going to have refrigeration.

“It’s very important to consider the individual needs of your family. Take medication if you have medications, if you have very young children, diapers, formula or toys to keep them occupied but mostly enough food, water, entertainment and clothing for 72 hours,” Squires said. “Safe places could be a community center or a school. Often, when there is an emergency, directions will come through email, a text, social media on places you can go to and safe ways to get there.”

She said most people tend to forget a plan for pets too.

“Would you leave your pet behind in an emergency? Eighty-five percent of people won’t leave their pets behind. So, what accommodations do you have for them? Do you have a carrier, do you have pet food and water,” Squires said.

Joshua Tieken, of the Falls Insurance Center in Idaho Falls, said a lot of people think of their insurance as full coverage but it is not.

“Full coverage is an ambiguous term. Full coverage isn’t necessarily covering everything. When you buy insurance, you buy insurance specifically for certain things; natural disasters, catastrophes, floods, earthquakes. Things of those natures are typically not covered by your standard homeowner’s policy. So, if you want coverage for those things, you have to buy them specifically and in specific quantities,” Tieken said.

Tieken said it is important to know and understand how your insurance policy works.

“Flood, just because water comes onto your property comes onto your home, doesn’t mean that your homeowner’s insurance is going to cover that,” Tieken said. “If your home is adversely affected by that water, you need a flood policy.”

Tieken said flooding can only be ruled if it has affected two or more acres.