Emergency Preparedness Week — Schedule time to review your farm’s plan

Emergency Preparedness Week is a national awareness initiative that encourages all citizens to review their preparation plans for natural disasters, power outages, flooding, fire, and other emergencies.

Public Safety Canada and its partners encourage Canadians to take three steps to become better prepared:

1. Know the risks – Although the consequences of disasters can be similar, knowing the risks specific to our community and our region can help you better prepare.
2. Make a plan – It will help you and your family know what to do.
3. Get an emergency kit – During an emergency, we will all need some basic supplies. We may need to get by without power or tap water. Be prepared to be self-sufficient for at least 72 hours in an emergency.

For farm and ranch operators, emergency preparedness goes beyond the home, to involve livestock, pets, outbuildings, power supplies, mapping, and more.

In light of this year’s Emergency Preparedness Week, we thought we’d pull together some resources to help rural homeowners, farmers, and ranchers get started on (or update) their emergency plans.

Family and Home

• Your Emergency Preparedness Guide – Developed under the Get Prepared initiative, this link provides details on what steps Canadians should take to become better prepared for emergencies. It includes a Family Emergency Plan template and list of emergency kit items.
• DIY Rural Emergency Plan – Developed by the Alberta Environmental Farm Plan Company (AEFP) and the Alberta Fire Chiefs Association (AFCA), this website provides a Rural Emergency Plan (REP) template, and instructions for building a REP storage tube.
• Get Prepared for Farm and Acreage Emergencies – This is a pdf pamphlet that provides a starting point for emergency planning, and a priority list to consider during an emergency.
• Pet Emergency Preparedness – Taking home emergency planning a bit further, this link offers guidance on what to consider for family pets.

Farm Animals

• Emergency Preparedness for Farm Animals – Also developed under Get Prepared, this page provides a list of considerations for owners of farm animals, from planning to shelter in place, to leaving the farm.
• Preparing the Alberta Beef Sector for Disease-Related Sector-Wide Emergencies – While many publications deal with emergency situations we can see, this one deals with the very often hidden threat of disease, and also deals with three key themes — understand, prepare, and respond.

While it would be ideal to sit down and work on emergency preparation immediately, it may be a busy week for many of us, with calving and/or seeding happening or just around the corner. If you’re out in the field, or at your desk for only a minute, bookmark this page, and schedule yourself a reminder to begin or review your emergency plans with staff and family.