FEMA urges WNC families to stand ready

Nearly two years after Hurricane Helene showed how quickly roads, communications, utilities and communities can be disrupted, federal emergency officials are urging Western North Carolina residents to use September to prepare for whatever comes next.

September is National Preparedness Month, an annual campaign launched in 2004 by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Ready Campaign. This year’s theme is “Americans Stand Ready.”

FEMA says preparedness starts at home but strengthens entire communities when residents are able to take care of themselves, their families and their neighbors during the first hours or days of an emergency.

That message carries particular weight across Rutherford, McDowell and surrounding mountain counties following Helene.

Residents experienced washed-out and blocked roads, power and communications outages, flooding, landslides and other disruptions after the storm moved through Western North Carolina in September 2024.

FEMA’s 2026 campaign focuses on three ideas: Americans being prepared to support first responders, protecting family and friends, and helping communities become more resilient.

The agency is encouraging residents to start with a few basic steps.

Know where you will get information. FEMA recommends having multiple ways to receive emergency alerts rather than relying on a single source. The FEMA App can provide weather and emergency alerts for a resident’s own community and up to five additional locations.

Make a family emergency plan. That should include contact information, meeting locations, medical information and a plan for what family members will do if they are separated.

Residents should also think ahead about whether they would evacuate or shelter in place and how they would communicate if cellular service or internet access is disrupted.

Plans should account for the places family members regularly spend time, including work, schools, day cares and houses of worship.

FEMA also recommends making specific preparations for older adults, people with disabilities, pets and anyone who depends on medication or medical equipment.

Build an emergency kit. Federal officials say preparedness does not have to mean buying an expensive premade survival kit.

Households can build supplies gradually using items they may already own, including canned food, water, flashlights and first-aid supplies. Kits should be checked periodically for expired food, medications and other items.

Western North Carolina residents may also want to consider circumstances experienced during Helene, including extended power outages, inaccessible roads and disrupted communications.

FEMA is also encouraging residents to review their insurance coverage before another disaster occurs.

Homeowners, renters, businesses and property owners should understand what their policies cover and what they do not. Flood damage, for example, generally requires separate flood insurance rather than a standard homeowners policy. Some new insurance coverage may also have a waiting period before it takes effect.

Training available for churches and community groups

Preparedness Month is not limited to hurricanes, flooding or other natural disasters.

The Department of Homeland Security and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency are also offering training for churches, schools, businesses and community organizations on preparing for human-caused emergencies.

The fifth annual Protecting Places of Worship National Weeks of Action runs Sept. 17-30.

Virtual training includes active-shooter preparedness, behavioral threat assessment for schools, suspicious-activity recognition, bomb-threat management, facility security and targeted-violence prevention.

An Active Shooter Preparedness webinar is scheduled Sept. 23 from 10 a.m. to noon Eastern time and includes information on emergency-action planning, response and recovery.

A House of Worship Active Shooter tabletop exercise workshop is scheduled Sept. 24 from 1 to 2 p.m. The program introduces organizations to customizable exercises that can be used to test their own emergency procedures before an actual crisis.

Other courses cover recognizing suspicious behavior, managing bomb threats and identifying security vulnerabilities.

The programs can be useful for churches and other gathering places in rural communities where staff and volunteers may be responsible for emergency planning even if they do not have dedicated security personnel.

CISA also maintains training opportunities throughout the year covering physical security, cybersecurity, emergency planning and other threats.

Details and current training opportunities are available at cisa.gov/resources-tools/training.

Preparedness can start small

FEMA says families do not have to overhaul their lives or spend large amounts of money to become better prepared.

Residents can start by writing down emergency contacts, choosing a family meeting place, checking flashlights and batteries, adding a few items to an emergency kit and learning where to receive official information.

Residents can also take first-aid, CPR and emergency-response training through FEMA, the American Red Cross or local emergency-management organizations.

Community preparedness can include checking on neighbors, volunteering with local organizations and learning skills that could be useful when professional responders are handling multiple emergencies at once.

For Western North Carolina, those recommendations come with recent experience behind them.

Helene demonstrated that emergencies can affect entire regions at the same time and that help may not immediately be able to reach every road, home or neighborhood.

National Preparedness Month is ultimately built around a simple idea: prepare before the warning arrives.

More preparedness information, family planning forms, and emergency-kit guidance are available at Ready.gov/stand-ready.