National Preparedness Month: Safeguard Your Home, Build Your Fund
Blog posted On September 04, 2025
September is National Preparedness Month, which has been observed since 2004 to encourage Americans to prepare for emergencies. It’s an important month for homeowners specifically; we want to spread awareness about disaster preparation and on setting yourself up with a family emergency plan. Below, we’ve provided some tips to better prepare yourself should the worst happen.
- Know Your Risk
Research your area and evaluate your disaster risks. Do you live in a flood zone? You’ll know this based on whether you were required to obtain flood insurance in addition to your homeowners insurance. Do you live in a location that’s at risk for tornados or hurricanes? You can explore various disasters and emergencies more on the Ready.gov site.
- Make an Emergency Plan/Fund
It’s important to create a family emergency plan in case disaster strikes. Below are a few steps and tips to consider:
- Put a plan together by discussing questions with your family or friends (i.e. what is your shelter plan, do you have an evac route, how will you communicate with others?)
- Sign up for emergency text alerts and warnings, like IPWAS, NOAA, FEMA, and the Weather Channel App
- Consider the specific needs of your household, such as medical needs, pets, disabilities/access concerns, etc.
- Create a document with everyone’s information (contact info, medical needs, insurance, doctors) and distribute amongst yourselves for safekeeping
- Practice your plan with your family
- Set aside an emergency fund to help with potential renovations should the home undergo damages during a disaster
- Gather Supplies
You’ll want to build an emergency supply kit in the event that you’re either unable to leave your home for an extended period or you have to evacuate your home for an unknown amount of time.
- Compiling enough food, water, and medicine can help you and your family stay safe and comfortable until assistance arrives
- Build a to-go bag with all the essentials you may need so that you’re not rushing during an evacuation situation
- Make copies of important documents to pack with your to-go bag
- Prepare Your Home
There’s a number of ways you can safeguard your home during a natural disaster.
- Safeguard critical documents and valuables (i.e. birth certificates, marriage, wills, adoption papers , passport, SSN cards, family photos)
- Move documents into a safe or store them in a higher location than the basement in case of a flood
- Create copies of important documents
- Reinforce your home’s exterior by:
- Installing hurricane straps to your roof
- Replacing loose gutters
- Checking shingles for any in poor condition
- Trimming trees around the house that could potentially fall and damage the roof or windows
- Covering windows with storm shutters or plywood
- Adding support weights to your garage door
- Installing deadbolts on doors for extra wind security
- Adding flood barriers to prevent water damage
- Community Involvement & Training
To further test your preparedness in an emergency, you can look into volunteering for organizations. You could:
- Participate in preparedness events
- Take an emergency training program
- Learn CPR and first aid
- Obtain a first aid kit from the Red Cross
- Download the Red Cross Emergency Preparedness or First Aid app
- Share preparedness resources with your family and community
We hope that we’ve provided helpful tips for National Preparedness Month. It never hurts to be smart and safe, even if disaster never strikes. We offer renovation programs if you’re interested in safeguarding your home, whether you want to make adjustments like updating your roof or weatherproofing your windows. We’re here to help you prepare as best we can.
Source: Ready.gov, American Red Cross
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