September is National Preparedness Month

[By Bruce Hennes, Hennes Communications]

Thankfully, those of us who live in Ohio don’t have to cope with forest fires, earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts or hurricanes.  Tornadoes?  We get a few, but thankfully it’s usually decades between devastating twisters.

Ohioans do get localized flooding, bridges do go out, fires happen – and if you give a few moment’s thought to those railroad tanker trains carrying goodness knows what through backyards, you will hopefully come to the realization we’re really not so immune from the disasters often faced by our friends in California, Oregon, Utah, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida — and pretty much the entire east coast.

At home, it’s just me and my wife.  But we have a son in an apartment not far away, a daughter with a husband and our three grandkids in the next town over and a son on the east coast.  It’s not at all inconceivable that terrorists could hit our country’s power grid, the phones go out, another superstorm hits — or we have another 9/11.  And this time, after watching what happened after Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, we know it could take the “cavalry” days to come to the rescue.

If something big does happen, we have the responsibility to take care of our kids and grandkids as best we can.  So we have a plan.  It’s not elaborate, it wasn’t expensive, and it probably isn’t as developed or robust as it should be, but it’s something.

September is National Preparedness Month.  Take a moment to think about your responsibilities.  Be informed.  Make a plan.  Build a kit. Get involved.

For more information, click here.