Emergency Planning 2025

By: Kathy Smith, SLP (retired speech-language pathologist); former NWACS Board Member

Reading time: 2 minutes

National Preparedness Month 2025

September is National Emergency Preparedness Month. This year’s theme is Preparedness Starts at Home. I have an important question: are we prepared? Are you prepared for emergencies or disasters? Are the AAC users in your life prepared?

These past two Septembers (2023 and 2024), we created blog posts detailing emergency planning.

Emergency Communication – Are we prepared? (2023)
Are You Prepared? (2024 part 1)
Emergency Preparation and Recovery (2024 part 2)

The number of emergencies and their severity are increasing yearly in the United States. We must all take the time to complete (or replenish) our Go bag and Stay bag!

The first and most important step is to check that ALL AAC users have an emergency communication system! They need the ability to communicate in all environments. In 2023, I wrote about suggestions for making emergency AAC communication systems. It is our responsibility to help support the development and maintenance of these emergency communication displays for all AAC users. This is an urgent need! Emergencies in the United States are increasing every year at a rapid pace. Communication needs change over time. September is a good month to complete this task annually.

an adult and a child by a table covered with emergency supplies — Build a Kit image from Ready.gov

Last September, Janice and I wrote a post about how to make your family’s GO BAG and STAY BAG. Again, don’t put this off even though it seems like ‘extra work.’ Get the whole family involved, including grandparents, etc. Making it fun while acknowledging the importance of this project can be more motivating for everyone. Frankly, several years ago I had wanted to make my emergency bags, but never got around to it. Writing these emergency blog posts these past years and getting the family involved were my motivators.

This September my husband and I are doing our first review of our bags. It is time to update last year’s go and stay bags. Our first step was to replace outdated items we obtained last year such as

the bottled water including the plastic bottles (plastic may deteriorate over time),
medications,
food,
and anything else such as batteries for flashlights and radio.

Are there other items that you need to replace?

This is also a good time to check for updates on your city, state, and federal government’s emergency websites. For example, Seattle has modified its emergency website, calling it Alert Seattle. This website is coordinated with King County.

Small steps can make a big difference. Now is a great time to act!