FLOODING

impacted by the local disaster, and everyone’s touch base with that person as well,” she said. “ at’s a good key component of that communication plan.”

6. Be your own hero

Billings o ered up a slogan created in 2022 to promote emergency preparedness in Je co: Be Your Own Hero.

“We want people to be their own heroes,” she said. “To take that empowerment step, to take the information into their own hands, to be informed and to know what their plan is should something happen in their area.”

7. Remember to accommodate people with disabilities in the plan. ere are a few questions that Billings suggests for families who have disabled members: Do you have an extra stash of medication? Is there a way out of the house for those who need assistance to walk? Do we have individuals with disabilities who may need extra assistance extra time moving? Do people in my house need a little bit more time to evacuate from their space? Ask yourself these questions when making your plan and when practicing escape/evacuation routes.

8. Add your pet’s food to the emergency food stash, along with a dish for food and water. Don’t forget about pets. Billings said to consider animal meds, special diets and toys for soothing them if you have to evacuate to a shelter. ink about the things you would need to be well away from home and apply that to your pet.

9. ink of the mosquitoes and rodents after the ood.

“After the ood events, it warms up quickly,” Billings said. “You will have a risk of increased mosquitoes and with mosquitoes in Colorado comes West Nile virus.”

She said that rodents and animals take shelter during ooding, and that may mean in and around your house. Stay vigilant when returning home, and pack bug spray in the emergency kit while you are planning.

10. Know how to get your well tested after a ood or disaster.

“ inking about the integrity of those systems after a ooding event is really important,” Billings said. “ inking about water and wastewater quality, those are messages that we as health departments send out to the community to remind individuals to think about water and wastewater safety when returning to their space after a ood event.”

Figure out where to go to get testing done before the ood event. is way you won’t forget it later when bigger issues are taking your attention. You can nd information about well testing here to get started.

Billings urges everyone in the county to sign up for the natural disaster alerts as well. Do that now, before the disaster hits. She said communication is key and being connected to information about the event is what the community needs. It’s a lesson that Billings says the department learned in 2013.

“We just assumed that electronic communication would be the way to go,” she said. “But it was quite literally printing out hard copies of information, taking them to the community and meeting the community where they were at.”

So, get informed, prepare, practice and stay alert. We can’t avoid these beautiful weather disasters, but we can be prepared to weather them when they hit.

For more information, check out the Jefferson County Public Health Emergency preparedness website.

Curious