Northwood News ♦ December 2016

Preparing for the Upcoming Winter Storm Season

By Laura Hussey

With the change in the weather, winter storms may be just around the corner.  Now is a good time to make sure your family and household are prepared for extreme weather and other emergencies.  Joe Corona, Outreach Coordinator for Montgomery County’s Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, will attend NFCCA’s December meeting to present on how individuals in Montgomery County can prepare for emergencies.  Corona will discuss some of the natural hazards that Montgomery County faces, and the four tenets of emergency preparedness:  Getting Informed, Making a Plan, Building a Kit, and Getting Involved.  Corona will also provide resources for residents to use in developing their own plans, such as Family Preparedness Planning documents, Kids Preparedness brochures and activity books, and materials for people with access and functional needs.

Regardless of whether you are able to attend the December meeting, all residents are eligible to register for the Alert Montgomery service to receive various notifications sent by the county.  The free service is customizable:  participants designate one or more locations for which they want to receive notifications, such as home, work, or an aging parent’s home, as well as which types of notifications they want to receive and the mode(s) of communication (email, text, cell phone, or land line) for receiving the notifications.  Register for Alert Montgomery or update your registration at alert.montgomerycountymd.gov.   ■