GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – As people continue to clean up from Wednesday’s storm, local emergency management officials are again urging residents to have plans in place for the future.
Not everyone was completely prepared for the impact of storms that knocked out power for days in parts of our area.
“We don’t have these kind of events in this area very often, and that’s the good news. The bad news is that they still do happen,” said Brown County Emergency Management Coordinator Sam Martin. “That’s why it is important for people to have a plan and have a kit. These are great reminders of that.”
Martin suggests creating a 72-hour kit, and a 72-hour plan for incidents like the storms on Wednesday. The goal is for residents to have the ability to become self-sufficient for two or three days while crews work to provide aid.
“Locally, there’s only so many emergency response resources available. The number of police and fire and EMS, it’s a finite resource…If everybody in the community – 200,000 people in the county – all have the same problem at the same time, that’s more than any fire department can help,” Martin told WTAQ News. “If people have that plan to stay self sufficient for the first 72 hours, that gives us time to get these additional resources in to help out.”
Unfortunately, not everyone prepares as well as others. Martin says there’s only so much that can actually be done to help the unprepared.
“If you’re sitting in a dark house, your cell phone is going dead, you don’t have a way to charge it, and you don’t have a plan of where to go – this is your wake-up call. As devastating as it was in some areas that got hit with this, this is not a very big event,” Martin said.
To learn more about creating a kit and a plan, head to ReadyWisconsin.wi.gov.
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