• Creating an emergency plan is simple and can prove invaluable in emergency situations.
• Meet with household members to discuss the dangers of fire, severe weather and other emergencies. Explain how to respond to each.
• Determine the safe spots in your home for severe weather. Always evacuate your home in case of a fire. Call 9-1-1 from a neighbor's house.
• Discuss what to do about power outages and personal injuries.
• Draw a floor plan of your home. Mark two escape routes from each room.
• Show family members how to turn off the water, gas and electricity at main switches when necessary.
• Post emergency telephone numbers near telephones.
• Teach children how and when to call 911 for Police, Fire and Rescue.
• Instruct household members to turn on the radio for emergency information.
• Pick one out-of-state and one local friend or relative for family members to call if separated during a disaster (it is often easier to call out-of-state than within the affected area).
• Teach children your out-of-state contact phone number.
• Pick two emergency meeting places: 1) A place near your home in case of a fire. 2) A place outside your neighborhood in case you cannot return home after a disaster.
• Take a basic first aid and CPR class.
• Keep family records in a water and fire-proof container.

Evacuation and Finding Shelter
Evacuation areas are determined based upon the storm’s projected path and intensity. Residents will be notified, via the TV, radio or through the Emergency Management resources if they need to evacuate. If you live in an evacuation zone, in a mobile or manufactured home, or you don’t feel your home is storm-worthy, now is the time to locate the nearest shelter and plan on going there when Hurricane Warnings are posted.

During many emergencies, the American Red Cross, assisted by community and other disaster relief groups, works with local authorities to set up public shelters in schools, municipal buildings and churches. While they often provide water, food, medicine and basic sanitary facilities, you should plan to bring your own supplies, especially water. Keep in mind that public shelters are the location of last resort. The best option is to relocate to a hotel outside the evacuation area, or to stay with family or friends, if possible.

Pre-registration is mandatory if you are planning to stay at the pet-friendly shelter, or a shelter that provides special needs, of if you wish to register your large animal. If your hurricane preparations require such arrangements, take steps to register early. To register for a special needs shelter, call 954-537-2888. To register for the pet-friendly shelter, call the Humane Society of Broward County at 954-989-3977. To register your horse, donkey or mule with Broward County Large Animal Disaster Planning Committee, call 954-370-3725.

• Listen to a battery powered radio for the location of emergency shelters. Follow instructions of local officials.
• Wear protective clothing and sturdy shoes.
• Take your Disaster Supplies Kit.
• Lock your house. Shut off water and electricity. Shut off gas only if instructed to do so.
• Use travel routes specified by local officials.
• If time permits, let others know when you left and where you are going.

For more information, please review the 2006 Red Cross Hurricane Preparedness Guide.

Food Supply

• Carefully ration everyone's food except that of children and pregnant women. Most people can remain relatively healthy with about half as much food as usual and can survive without any food for several days, if necessary.
• If the water supply is limited, try to avoid foods high in fat and protein, since they will make you thirsty. Try to eat salt-free crackers, whole grain cereals and canned foods with high liquid content.
• It is especially important to be sanitary when storing, handling and eating food.
• Keep food in covered containers.
• Keep cooking and eating utensils clean.
• Keep garbage in closed containers and dispose it outside the house when it is safe to go outside. Bury garbage, if necessary. Avoid letting garbage accumulate inside the shelter, both for fire and sanitation reasons.
• For emergency cooking, heat food with candle warmers, chafing dishes and fondue pots, or use a fireplace. Charcoal grills and camp stoves are for outdoor use only.
• Canned food can be eaten right out of the can without warming. Before heating food in a can, open the can and remove the label.
• Do not eat foods from cans that have tops that are swollen, even though the product may look okay to eat.
• Do not eat any food that looks or smells abnormal, even if the can looks normal.

Water Supply 

• Water is critical for survival. Plan to have about one gallon of water per person per day for drinking, cooking and personal hygiene. You may need more for medical emergencies.
• Allow people to drink according to their need. The average person should drink between two and two-and-one-half quarts of water or other liquids per day, but many people need more. This will depend on age, physical activity, physical condition and time of year.
• Under no circumstances should a person drink less then one quart of water each day. It is better to use whatever water is available, in the hope of finding more, than to deprive people of what they need to survive by rationing it.
• First, drink water that you know is not contaminated. If necessary, suspicious water, such as cloudy water from regular faucets or muddy water from streams or ponds, can be used after it has been purified. If water purification is not possible, put off drinking suspicious water as long as possible, but do not become dehydrated.
• In addition to stored water, try other sources such as ice cubes, milk, soft drinks, fruit and vegetable juices; water in the hot water tank (20 to 60 gallons); water in the flush tanks (not the bowls) of home toilets.
• If water pipes are damaged or if advised by local authorities, turn off the main water valves in your home. This will prevent water from draining away in case the water main breaks. The pipes will still be full of water when the main valve is closed.
• To use this water, turn on the faucet at the highest point in your house (which lets air into the system). Then draw water, as needed, from the lowest point in your house, either a faucet or the hot water tank.

Water Purification
Purify water of uncertain purity before using it for drinking, food preparation or hygiene. In addition to having a bad odor and taste, contaminated water can contain microorganisms that cause diseases such as dysentery, cholera, typhoid and hepatitis.

There are many ways to purify water. None is perfect. Often the best solution is a combination of methods. Before purifying, let any suspended particles settle to the bottom, or strain them through layers of clean cloth.
Following are four purification methods. The first three methods are boiling, chlorination and purification tablets. These will kill microbes but will not remove other contaminants such as heavy metals, salts, most other chemicals and radioactive fallout. The final method, distillation, will remove microbes as well as other contaminants including radioactive fallout.

Boiling is the safest method of purifying water.

• Bring water to a rolling boil for 10 minutes, keeping in mind that some water will evaporate. Let the water cool before drinking.
• Boiled water will taste better if you put oxygen back into it by pouring it back and forth between two containers. This will also improve the taste of stored water.

Chlorination uses liquid chlorine bleach to kill microorganisms.

• Use liquid bleach that contains 5.25 percent sodium hypochlorite and no soap. Some containers warn, "Not For Personal Use." You can disregard these warnings if the label states sodium hypochlorite as the only active ingredient and if you use only the small quantities mentioned in these instructions.
• Add two drops of bleach per quart of water (four drops if the water is cloudy), stir and let stand for 30 minutes. If the water does not taste and smell of chlorine at that point, add another dose and let stand another 15 minutes.
• If you do not have a dropper, use a spoon and a square-ended strip of paper or thin cloth about 1/4 inch by 2 inches. Put the strip in the spoon with an end hanging down about 1/2 inch below the scoop of the spoon. Place bleach in the spoon and carefully tip it. Drops the size of those from a medicine dropper will drip off the end of the strip.

Purification tablets release chlorine or iodine. They are inexpensive and available at most sporting goods stores and some drugstores. Follow the package directions. Usually one tablet is enough for one quart of water. Double the dose for cloudy water.

Distillation involves boiling water and then collecting the vapor that condenses back to water. The condensed vapor may include salt or other impurities.

• Fill a pot halfway with water.
• Tie a cup to the handle on the pot's lid so that the cup will hang right-side-up when the lid is upside-down (make sure the cup is not dangling into the water).
• Boil the water for 20 minutes. The water that drips from the lid into the cup is distilled.