Public Health Preparedness
What is Preparedness?
Preparedness is being aware of events that are likely to occur and taking action to protect yourself and your family during those events. It is the state of being prepared for an emergency before it happens.
Preparedness isn’t just for individuals. It applies to families, workplaces, schools, governments, and communities.
Now more than ever disasters are more widespread both in geography and in frequency. While some disasters are more likely to occur in our four-county district than others, preparing in advance ensures you will have the right resources and plans in place to protect and even reunite with your family.
Are you prepared for…
For more information on how you can be prepared please review the links below. It could save your life!
Families
All families should make a plan for emergencies. At a minimum, your plan should address:
- How will I receive emergency alerts and warnings?
- What is my shelter plan?
- What is my evacuation route?
- What is my family/household communication plan?
- What should I include in my emergency kit
Talk with neighbors about how you can work together during an emergency. You will be better prepared to reunite your family and loved ones if you think ahead!
Businesses
Make sure your business is prepared during an emergency or disaster. Need help developing a plan and what to include? At a minimum you should:
- Know what to do if your employees cannot leave the worksite
- Make sure emergency supplies are on-site
- Include food and water supplies for employees unable to leave
- Develop a plan to communicate with employees during working hours and non-working hours regarding business operations status
- Check out Ready.gov for more details and toolkits to ready your business
Communities
Community preparedness is the ability of communities to prepare for, withstand and recover in both the short and long terms from public health incidents. (CDC).
Three Rivers engages and coordinates with emergency management, healthcare organizations (private and community based), mental/behavioral health providers, community and faith-based partners, state and local governments and schools to prepare for large scale response efforts.
Three Rivers preparedness efforts include planning, training, and exercising with our local emergency partners to improve response time, and prepare staff and communities for potential emergencies/disasters.
Medical Reserve Corps
MRC is a local group of volunteers, organized to be better prepared to help their communities in the event of an emergency. For more information on the Three Rivers District Health Department MRC, contact Amy Marston at 502-484-3412 or Amy.Marston@ky.gov
- Published: October 12, 2021
- Page reviewed/updated: August 16, 2023
Man-made vs Natural Defined
Man-made Disaster - A disaster attributed in part or entirely to human intent, error, negligence, or involving a failure of a man-made system, resulting in significant injuries or deaths.
Natural Disaster - a natural disaster is a major adverse event resulting from natural processes of the Earth that can cause loss of life or damage to property and interrupts regular daily activities.