The Poway Fire Department, Emergency Services Division, prepared this workbook for the residents and businesses of Poway. It is designed to assist you in developing personal plans to cope with unforeseen emergencies and disasters.
Although the information in this book should help you to prepare for all types of emergencies, as you will see, we tend to focus most of our preparedness activities around the threat of earthquake. This is because a major earthquake will disrupt lifelines such as emergency services, utilities, and transportation routes. To cope and survive, citizens will need to be self-sufficient for at least three days and probably up to one week. Obviously, this requires some thought and planning.
Use this workbook as a guide. Not all of the information will pertain to you. If you haven't done anything before, don't get discouraged. You don't have to accomplish everything in one day. Take it step by step. Make preparedness an ongoing family project.
Emergency Preparedness Workbook
The information in this workbook was compiled from many sources. Much of it was obtained from the San Diego County Office of Disaster Preparedness and the American Red Cross. For further information, contact:
- Poway Fire Department 858-668-4468
- County Office of Disaster Preparedness 858-565-3490
- American Red Cross (Escondido) 760-745-3221
- American Red Cross Disaster Services (San Diego) 619-542-7649
- State Office of Emergency Services 619-525-4287
- Southern California Earthquake Center 213-740-1560
Most people have a calendar that they mark with reminders of birthdays, anniversaries, and other special occasions. Use this same calendar as a reminder to review your disaster plan, change the batteries in your smoke detector, check on supplies, etc. This should be done twice a year, e.g. when the time changes to and from daylight savings
1st Date_________________
2nd Date_________________