Flood Safety Awareness Week: 9 Flood Safety Tips

 

It’s important to be prepared for flooding no matter where you live, but particularly if you are in a low-lying area, near water, or downstream from a dam. Even a very small stream or dry creek bed can overflow and create flooding, so follow these tips:

• Know your area's flood risk and consider flood insurance. To estimate your flood risk and flood insurance premium, visit www.floodsmart.gov or call 1-800-427-2419.   
• Make an itemized list of personal property, including furnishings, clothing, and valuables.  
• Fill out a Household Emergency Plan containing important contacts for you and your family in the event of any emergency.
• Sign up for ReadyNotifyPA, the region’s emergency text and email alert system, and find out first by logging on to www.readynotifypa.org, text PHILA to 411911 or scan the code below to register. (The alerts are free; however, your wireless provider may charge for text messaging.)

• Prepare a Go Bag with a portable AM/FM radio that you can grab when you need to evacuate you home and it is safe to leave.
• Learn the safest route to higher ground from your home or place of business to stay in case you have to evacuate. This should be part of your Household Emergency Plan.  
• If you live in a flood-susceptible area, keep materials, such as sandbags, plywood, plastic sheeting, and lumber, on hand to help protect your home.  
• Never walk across flood waters, just six inches of moving water can knock you off your feet. 
• Avoid flooded roadways and do not attempt to drive through flood waters, just two feet of moving water can sweep a Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) off the road. 

Additional flooding tips, such as how to recover from a flood, can be found on the Floods page of the Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management's website.