1.

Learn the first 9 Steps to take immediately following a disaster to secure your home and to protect your neighborhood.
It is hard to think clearly following disaster. These steps will help you quickly and safely do things that really help.

2.

Identify the skills and equipment each neighbor has that are useful in an effective disaster response.
Knowing which neighbors have supplies and skills helps your disaster response be timely, and allows everyone to contribute to the response in a meaningful way.

3.

Create a Neighborhood Map showing the locations of:

a. Each natural gas meter and propane tank.
About 67% of house fires following disasters are caused by leaking gas. Knowing where these meters are and shutting them off helps eliminate this threat.

b. Each neighbor who is elderly, who has disability, and where children are who may be home alone at certain hours of the day.
Checking on neighbors vulnerable to injury and trauma helps protect them from going into shock, and helps ensure that everyone is okay.

1.

First, start by having a preliminary meeting with a few key neighbors to discuss the possibility of this program being a success in your area. Together you can discuss how you want to get the rest of the neighborhood involved, when and where would be a good time and place, and who will set things up and host the meetings.

2.

You will want to follow up with your neighbors and thank them for coming. Depending on how your first meeting went, start to promote it to the rest of the neighborhood.

3.

Working together as a whole will be a major part of setting up your neighborhood team and response. Even if everyone is not able to come and participate, you can still practice a successful response to emergencies. After your neighborhood is knowledgeable of what to do and feels ready to respond to an emergency, your neighborhood should practice a mock drill to some scale.