Don't Just Spring Forward, Get Ready for Emergencies and Disasters

Now that you are just realizing you could lose an hour's sleep Saturday night since we need to "spring forward," remember, it could be worse. You could show up for church as everyone else is leaving on Sunday morning if you forget to move the clocks ahead an hour.

The Georgia Emergency Management Agency's Ready Georgia campaign is asking state residents to do more than just setting their clocks for Daylight Savings Time. It's also a great time to do an emergency preparedness check.

First off, test those smoke alarms and CO2 detectors to make sure they work. If they are battery operated, or even have batter backups, replace them if they're more than a year old.

Next take a loot at your Ready Kit, an emergency kit with necessities.

Check expiration dates on food, water and medications. If the food expires in less than a year, use it soon and replace it in your kit. (Editor's Note: I found how important checking those dates can be the other day, when I almost ate some canned fruit that "expired" late last year.) Same for water and medicine.

Check your equipment. Is your battery-powered radio working? Have you replaced the batteries in your flashlight and NOAA weather radio? Better yet, have you considered getting a solar and crank-powered set of equipment? (When those kids are getting out of control during hours or even days with no power, just think: You can settle them down by handing each a flashlight or radio and make them crank until they settle down!)

Rethink your needs. Is someone on medication not taken a year ago? Do you have more family members, or a new pet? Don't forget them! (If your doctor won't give you "extra" prescription medicine for an emergency kit, then you might want to keep your prescriptions in small travel bags in your medicine cabinet that you can just grab, close and toss into your Ready Kit so you don't have to search all over the house for them.)

But all of this stuff sitting in your emergency kit is useless without a plan. Lucky you, GEMA has not only created a template to make your own family emergency plan, they also have an app for that. You can update medical information, phone numbers and other personal details as necessary. Also make sure family members know where to go and how to get in touch with each other in case of an emergency.