Happy New Year, San Francisco!

Isn’t the New Year inspiring? Who doesn’t love a chance to start fresh and really focus on what you want to accomplish—with a whopping 365 days to do so. We have a hunch that preparedness may not be number one on most New Year’s resolutions lists, but in its most boiled down state, preparedness is easier than most think.  And by taking stock of your preparedness, you are doing something now, before an emergency, that will make a big difference after.

So, here are a few simple ideas to help jump start meeting a preparedness New Year’s resolution:

• A little foresight can go a long way—make a plan now, so you know how to find and get in touch with your people when something happens. The same connections that are important in everyday life—with friends, family, neighbors, and communities—are even more crucial in a crisis.

• Print and fill out the Make a Plan card, take a picture of it,  and text the image to your out of area contact.
• Whether you’re just starting out or a preparedness pro, gathering your emergency supplies is easy. A good rule of thumb is to have supplies for about 3 days, or 72 hours. You’ll be surprised at how much you already have. Check out SF72’s supplies for more ideas.

• Know what to do. Watch SF72 videos and learn how to get prepared from a few of your fellow San Franciscans. They’ve got lessons and advice to share from their experiences in the local community and in disasters.
• Register for San Francisco’s text-based notification system AlertSF
• Look into becoming a trained member of San Francisco NERT
• Follow@sf_emergency for alerts, notifications and warnings and @SF72 for preparedness and resilience conversations

And whatever you do to prepare, we hope you will share that your family and friends. Hearing it from you can really inspire preparedness.

Happy New Year from all of us at the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management and wishing you and yours a prepared 2015!