Preparedness Month

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Preparedness Month

By Melanie Hassenfratz

9/3/2025

City of Louisville, Colorado - since 1878

Preparedness Month: Planning with Your People

City of Louisville, Colorado sent this bulletin at 09/02/2025 03:08 PM MDT

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September is National Disaster Preparedness Month, and we’re inviting the Louisville community to get ready together. Staying prepared for disasters is key to keeping the Louisville community safe and resilient. All month long, we’ll be sharing helpful tips, hosting local events, and spotlighting unique themes to inspire actions that build resilience. Themes include: planning with your people, disasters we overlook, warning signs to stay alert, paws & preparedness, the resilience round-up, and fire prevention week.

This week's theme is 'Planning With Your People':

Taking the time to regularly update your household’s emergency plan can make all the difference when disaster strikes. Below, you’ll learn how to build a plan, create a grab list, and other ways you can stay prepared!

Follow us on social media and sign up for the Disaster Preparedness & Resilience Newsletter to stay in the loop all year long.

Quick Tips for General Preparedness

Sign up for alerts

Signing up for emergency notifications is a crucial step in staying informed and prepared for any disaster. There are three types of alerts you can opt in to: BOCOAlert for real-time updates on severe weather, evacuations, and other critical safety information; ReachWell Translation App for multilingual emergency communications; and BOCOInfo for updates during an emergency.

Sign up now

Create a plan

Create a clear and personalized plan for before a disaster strikes, and how you’ll respond during one. A strong preparedness plan should be both actionable and sustainable, tailored to your household’s needs. Key components to include are: a reliable communication strategy, a well-defined evacuation route, and a grab list of essential items you’ll need in an emergency.

Learn more

Illustration of a meter with segments going from green to red with the needle in the orange section

Assess your risks

It's important to understand your own risk. Start by thinking about your current ability to maintain the lifelines of safety and security, food, water and shelter, health and medical needs, energy, communications, and transportation. “Boulder Office of Disaster Management (ODM) has a quick and easy risk assessment tool that anyone can use!

Complete a Risk Assessment

Know two ways out

Emergencies don’t wait for directions. The Louisville Fire Protection District recommends that everyone in your household knows two ways to safely exit your home like the front door and a back window or side gate. The same goes for your neighborhood; map out two routes that get you to safety, in case one is blocked.

Learn more from Louisville Fire

Grab list

A grab list is an outline of items that will help you maintain your lifelines, and also typically includes a list of your invaluable items that cannot be replaced, that you'll take with you during an evacuation. Use the 7 P’s as your guide! They’re a simple way to make sure you’ve got everything that matters most to you when time runs short.