LThe Life Starter
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Lesson 1 of 6
Life · Guided lesson

Assess local risks and set alerts

Prioritize credible hazards and create redundant ways to receive official warnings.

About 29 minutes Finish with a concrete deliverable
Federal Emergency Management AgencyHow to Prepare an Emergency KitYouTube
Course primer

How to Prepare an Emergency Kit

From Federal Emergency Management Agency. Watch here or open it on YouTube .

During the course primer, listen for ideas that change how you approach “Assess local risks and set alerts.” Pause once to capture a useful point, then apply it while producing a local hazard profile and alert map listing source, signal, immediate action, season, and backup channel.
Before you begin

What this lesson is really solving.

Prioritize credible hazards and create redundant ways to receive official warnings. This is lesson 1 because later decisions depend on a local hazard profile and alert map listing source, signal, immediate action, season, and backup channel. Preparedness begins with a local threat model: what can happen here, how will we know, and what action follows? Use your own numbers, files, environment, and constraints so the result survives outside the course.

Why this works

Understand the idea before touching the steps.

Preparedness begins with a local threat model: what can happen here, how will we know, and what action follows?

Do this

Follow these steps in order.

Take the action in each step; then use the deliverable below to prove the lesson is finished.

  1. 1

    Use local and official maps or guidance to list weather, fire, flood, earthquake, heat, outage, hazardous-material, public-health, and building risks.

  2. 2

    Rank hazards by plausible impact, warning time, season, location, transport, and household vulnerability.

  3. 3

    Enroll in official local alerts and enable relevant device emergency and weather settings.

  4. 4

    Choose backup information routes for power, internet, mobile, hearing, vision, language, or accessibility failures.

Worked example

See the standard in context.

A coastal household prioritizes hurricane, flooding, heat, and outage alerts, then adds a battery radio and an out-of-area contact. The learner saves a local hazard profile and alert map listing source, signal, immediate action, season, and backup channel and notes the evidence or assumption behind the choice so it can be reviewed and improved later.

Quality check

Inspect before you move on.

  • The finished work visibly includes a local hazard profile and alert map listing source, signal, immediate action, season, and backup channel.
  • You tested the work against this common failure: Buying supplies for dramatic distant scenarios while ignoring the most likely local hazard and its official instructions.
  • Another person could verify this mastery standard: Every priority hazard has a verified warning source and an action the household can state without searching.
Make it real

Your deliverable

A local hazard profile and alert map listing source, signal, immediate action, season, and backup channel.

Common mistake

Watch for this

Buying supplies for dramatic distant scenarios while ignoring the most likely local hazard and its official instructions.

You’re ready when

Prove it—don’t just recognize it.

Every priority hazard has a verified warning source and an action the household can state without searching.

Objective evidence · 3 questions

Quick knowledge check

Answer from the lesson—not from confidence alone. Score at least 2 of 3 to unlock completion.

Not yet passed

This curriculum-aligned check is scored automatically and stored with your account when signed in. It is an objective learning signal, but it has not yet been independently validated as a standardized assessment.

1Which action belongs in the recommended process for “Assess local risks and set alerts”?
2Which result is the clearest evidence that this lesson’s work is complete?
3Which choice matches the failure this lesson specifically warns against?
0 of 3 answeredEach question measures the action, evidence, or failure condition taught above.
Useful for this course

Tools, templates, and references

Household readiness workbookMap contacts, supplies, documents, responsibilities, and drills.
Check current detailsReferences reviewed September 9, 2026. Lesson exercises are editorial synthesis; official rules come from the linked sources.
Ready.gov — Make a planReady.gov — Build a kit
1
One check remains

Pass the knowledge check above first.

Completion unlocks after a score of 2 out of 3. Then confirm that you produced the lesson deliverable.

Go to the knowledge check