Novato Agencies Offer Advice on How to Get Info in an Emergency

The following is a news release from the city of Novato and the Novato Fire District:

This month’s tip is to make sure everyone in your household can receive, understand, and act upon information received in an emergency.

Getting correct information during an emergency is the key to taking safe action. Someone in your household may have special needs and may not be able to receive, understand, or act on emergency information.

Things to consider:

• Emergency news or weather broadcasts may not be closed captioned.
• Information that is shown on screen may not be spoken aloud.
• Automated voices and voices over loud speakers may be hard to understand.
• Information comes quickly and it may be hard to understand or remember instructions.
• Words moving across the bottom of a television screen may move very quickly.
• The TV screen color or color of the text might make some information hard to read.

How to take action:

· Receive emergency alerts by phone, text and e-mail for your neighborhood, even when you are not home. Register your phones and e-mail addresses at www.alertmarin.org, as well as withwww.nixle.com--and subscribe to this free service that delivers emergency messages and related information from both the Novato Police and Novato Fire Departments directly to your computer or smartphone.

· Get a NOAA Emergency Alert/Weather Radio which can turn itself on when an emergency alert is issued and warn you at any time. Prices start at about $20 and most radios run on batteries or have a battery back-up.

· Make sure everyone in your household can communicate in a disaster.The way emergency information is sent out may not work for everyone. If you or a member of your household doesn’t speak English very well, or uses an assistive device to speak or hear, make a plan now to identify someone (or more than one person) that you can contact for help in an emergency. Have more than one way to get in touch with them and keep their contact information with you.

To get ready for the next disaster or emergency, take our free, two-hour preparedness course Get Ready—by calling the Novato Police Department at 415-897-4361. Upcoming classes are onTuesday, 10/7 and Thursday, 10/16. For a more intensive training beyond the basics offered in “Get Ready,” sign up for Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training—which is an 18-hour course offered throughout Marin County. For more information, go to www.readymarin.org.