Assess local risks and set alerts
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The idea in everyday life
Identify the main local dangers and choose more than one way to receive official warnings.
Ask three questions: what could happen here, how would we hear about it, and what should we do next?
One step at a time.
Use the sample or information you have permission to use. Keep your work as you go. You can pause between steps.
- 1
Use local and official maps or guidance to list weather, fire, flood, earthquake, heat, outage, hazardous-material, public-health, and building risks.
- 2
Rank hazards by plausible impact, warning time, season, location, transport, and household vulnerability.
- 3
Enroll in official local alerts and enable relevant device emergency and weather settings.
- 4
Choose backup information routes for power, internet, mobile, hearing, vision, language, or accessibility failures.
See how it works.
A coastal household prioritizes hurricane, flooding, heat, and outage alerts, then adds a battery radio and an out-of-area contact.
Did you cover these?
- Your work includes a local hazard profile and alert map listing source, signal, immediate action, season, and backup channel.
- Check this common mistake: Buying supplies for dramatic distant scenarios while ignoring the most likely local hazard and its official instructions.
- Every priority hazard has a verified warning source and an action the household can state without searching.
What to finish
A local hazard profile and alert map listing source, signal, immediate action, season, and backup channel.
Watch for this
Buying supplies for dramatic distant scenarios while ignoring the most likely local hazard and its official instructions.
How can I tell I understand it?
Every priority hazard has a verified warning source and an action the household can state without searching.
Quick knowledge check
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Answer all 3 questions above and get at least 2 right. You can review the explanations and try again.
Go to the knowledge checkOptional course overview video
How to Prepare an Emergency Kit
From Federal Emergency Management Agency. Watch here or open it on YouTube .
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