September is Preparedness Month and CBS 21, CW 15 and the American Red Cross have safety tips to keep you and your family safe and prepared!

3. Make a plan. As part of your disaster plan, choose an out ­of ­area emergency contact person. It may be easier to text or call long distance if local phone lines are overloaded or out of service. Everyone should carry emergency contact information in writing as well as programmed into their cell phones.

4.       Make a Plan: Plan what to do if you have to evacuate. Decide where you would go and what route you would take to get there. You may choose to go to a hotel/motel, stay with friends or relatives in a safe location or go to an evacuation shelter if necessary. Practice evacuating your home twice a year. Drive your planned evacuation route and plot alternate routes on your map in case roads are impassable.

5. Do you have a pet? Include your pets in your safety plan. Also take a cat or dog first aid class. The Red Cross has pet first aid training. In your disaster plan, plan ahead for your pets. Keep a phone list of pet­ friendly hotels/motels and animal shelters that are along your evacuation routes.

6.       Be Informed:  Learn what disasters or emergencies may occur in your area. These events can range from those affecting only you and your family, like a home fire or medical emergency, to those affecting your entire community, like an earthquake or flood. Flooding and severe winter weather are two common disasters in central Pennsylvania

7. Be Informed: Learn how local authorities will notify you during a disaster and how you will get information, whether through local radio, TV or NOAA Weather Radio stations or channels.
8. Where is the nearest automated external defibrillator (AED) to your home, school and workplace? Did you know an AED machine will talk you through how to use it? You can save a life by following its prompts until help comes. Even better, you will learn how to use an AED machine in a Red Cross CPR class which will give you confidence to respond.

9.       If your community has experienced a disaster, register on the American Red Cross Safe and Well Web site available through RedCross.org to let your family and friends know about your welfare. If you don’t have Internet access, call 1-866-GET-INFO to register yourself and your family.

10. Home fires are the most common disaster! Be prepared for a fire.  Have a fire drill once a month.  Time how long it takes for everyone to get to your safe meeting place.  Practicing fire drills will help children and everyone be ready to quickly exit a burning building and find their meeting place. 
11. Create a family fire plan.  As a family decide what would be a safe meeting place that everyone would report to if there was a fire or emergency.  When everyone reports to a specific meeting place during a fire, parents, teacher, and firemen know that everyone has gotten out of the building safely. 
12. Practicing fire drills helps save lives and children.  During a fire, some children hide in a closet or under a bed, instead of escaping the burning building. Take a few minutes to teach children about fire safety and two ways out of every room.    
13. Teach and practice the Stop, Drop, and Roll with your children.  It is important for them to learn not to run if their clothes catch on fire because running only fuels the flames.  Teach everyone to use a blanket, coat, or rug to wrap around the person whose clothes are on fire to help smother and put out the fire. 
14. Keep all matches and lighters out of the reach of children.  Even small children know where matches are kept at their home and many fires are started by children playing with matches or lighters.
15. Be careful around the use of candles.  According to FEMA U.S. Fire Administration, candles cause an estimated 15,600 fires in homes and 150 deaths each year.  Over half of the fires start because the candle is too close to some combustible material such as a curtain or clothing.  When you leave the room, make sure you blow out the candle.       
16. Know how to use a fire extinguisher.  Teach each family member how to use a fire extinguisher to put out small fires.   One 9-year-old boy learned how to use a fire extinguisher at a safety training.  One day he was alone on the family’s farm when a fire started in the barn, because of the training he was able to extinguish the fire and save their barn.
17.  Learn what to do for someone who is choking.  Learning how to do abdominal thrusts could save a life.  One young boy saw a fellow classmate choking on food and knew how to do abdominal thrust (just above the belly button) and dislodged the food so the student could breathe.
18. Take a CPR class and be prepared to help someone who has severe bleeding and or is unconscious.  A CPR class will provide you with some hands-on practice so during an emergency you can provide CPR/First Aid directed by the 911 operator until the ambulance arrives.  Call your local Red Cross or look on their web site to find out where and when there is a class in your area.  You could save someone’s life.
19. Want to get out of a burning building alive?  Make sure your smoke detector is working.  A working smoke detector saves lives.  You will have a 50 % chance of getting out of a burning building alive if your smoke detector works.  Remember fire is fast and hot and seconds count.  Change your smoke detector battery 2 times a year.  The life you save could be someone you love.
20. Carbon monoxide detectors save lives each year.  Carbon monoxide is odorless, colorless, and toxic gas.  Because you cannot see, taste, or smell this gas, CO can kill you before you are aware it is in your long.  A working carbon monoxide detector would alert you to this silent killer.   
21. Knowing how to provide first aid during an emergency is important and saves lives.  Taking a first aid course and making some plans of what to do during an emergency makes a difference.  Call the Red Cross or look on their web site to find out where you can take a first aid class.  
22. There are approximately 2 million poison exposures in the U.S. each year (57% are under age 6).   Prevent your child from being poisoned by putting a lock on the kitchen or bathroom cabinet and keeping medicines locked up out of reach.  Put the poison control number (1-800-222-1222) near your phone so you can call when you think someone has been exposed to a poison.
23. Prevent an explosion. Do not store gasoline in a glass container or in a home, workshop, or garage.  Gas is very explosive and one spark or lighting a match can cause an explosion or fire.  Also do not use your cell phone while at the gas station.
24. Never use gasoline to start a trash fire.  Gas fumes could get on your clothes and will spread out from the trash.  When you light the fire with a match, your clothes will also catch on fire causing you to be burned. 
25. Make several first aid kits for your home, workshop, garage, vehicle, and purse.  Use a coffee can or small zip lock baggies and put in some band-aids, gauze, and cleaning wipes and you will be prepared for taking care of small cuts and bruises.  
26. Keep garden and lawn chemicals out of reach of children and pets by locking the door so they cannot be exposed to any of the pesticides or chemicals.  Keep chemicals in original containers, never put into empty water, Gatorade, or other food/water container.   Children may think that it is something they can drink and be poisoned. 
27. Be prepared when boating. Have everyone wear a life jacket.  In Pennsylvania, Children under 12 years must have a life jacket on and those over 12 must have one with them.  A Ranger can fine each person $80.00 if they are not following the law.  Life jackets are like seat belts, wearing them can save lives.  
28. Swim safely. When children are in or near water, have an adult supervisor there at all times.  Drowning is the leading cause of injury death for young children ages 1-4 years old.
29. During an emergency, direct someone to go to the end of the driveway, lane or edge of the road, to flag down the ambulance or fire truck so that they do not go past your home or driveway.  It takes a long time for emergency vehicles to find a place to turn around.   At night you can use a flash light to let the emergency vehicles know where they are needed.
30. Emergency help is only a call away.  Know and teach children how to call 911.  Put the directions to your home, address, and township or borough near your phone.  Then the information the 911 operator needs to send you help will be handy.  One young 10 year old learned how to call 911 at a safety training program, and then used this knowledge a few months later when his mother fell from a ladder. He called 911 and saved her life. 

For more information, and other ways to be Red Cross Ready, visit www.redcross.org