# September is Emergency Preparedness Month!
**Tips to prepare for, survive, recover from disaster**
A major emergency can occur anytime so it’s important to know what resources are available with information, and have a plan of action if disaster should strike. The tips below can help get you started on protecting yourself and your family.
Tips to prepare your own household
* Sign up to receive alerts and warnings: Sign Up 
* Bookmark the Whatcom Ready Facebook page and
WhatcomReady.org for updates;
* With one task a month, you can Prepare in a Year (information available in Spanish, Russian and Punjabi as well as English);
* Get Two Weeks Ready, for when help is delayed;
* Become a trained volunteer with Community Emergency
Response Team (CERT), Search and Rescue, Medical Reserve Corps, Project Lifesaver, Volunteer Mobilization Center, or as an amateur radio operator;
* Check out the County’s Emergency Preparedness website to locate natural hazards nearest you; and,
* Learn about the “Ready-Set-Go” pre-evacuation protocol used regionally (information available in Spanish, Ukrainian, Russian and Punjabi.)
You can find all this information and more on the Whatcom County Public Alert website: https://public.alertsense.com/SignUp/?regionid=1189
**Become ready to respond in your own neighborhood**
In a major disaster, residents are often their own “first responder.” After an earthquake, tsunami or other major catastrophe, police, firefighters and EMTs will be called in many directions. It could take days, even weeks, before help arrives.
There are local opportunities to learn what to do first and how to respond safely following an emergency. Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training is one. Now in its 26th year locally, CERT has offered its eight-week course in communities throughout Whatcom County – from Point Roberts and Lummi Island to Sudden Valley, Lynden, Western Washington University, and soon for Chuckanut Bay.
September is the month to prepare for power loss, floods, extreme cold, falling trees or possibly an earthquake. Personal preparedness will help ensure we can survive, rebuild and recover.