Medford, Ore — While the threat of natural disaster exists all the time, emergency preparedness is often on the back of our minds.
The City of Medford wants to make it a priority for Medford residents.
The Rogue Valley is primed for any number of natural disasters.
“Anything from a potential house fire, to winter time floods to severe weather, to an earthquake,” said Medford Emergency Manager Melissa Cano.
So the City of Medford is planning for the worst, and asking residents to “Do one Thing” a month to prepare.
“Do One Thing basically means we’re trying to really push that people do one simple step per month that way by the end of 2019 people will be that much closer to being prepared at home,” said Cano.
Every month the city will promote a new way of being prepared. For January, it’s “Make a Plan”.
“It’s your bare bones it’s getting all your family members on a piece of paper with medical information, does anyone take medication does anyone need assistance.”
Each month will have a different task for families or individuals to prepare their disaster kit, from a meeting place during evacuations to a disaster plan for their pets.
“People think oh it’s so hard to get started or it takes so much time or I just don’t have the money to do it. Our whole view of this is to make it a low cost or no cost option, January is no cost at all,” said Cano.
Time well spent to prepare people in Medford if the next big disaster hits.
“It’ll encourage our community self awareness of how to take care of, not just ourselves but each other if something does happen.”
In Salem, Governor Kate Brown proclaimed Saturday, January 26th as the first Cascadia Preparedness Day to bring attention to the possibility of a major earthquake in our near future and the need to be ready.
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