Jim Serre

You never know when an emergency or disaster will strike, and you never know if you will be forced to shelter-in-place or evacuate your home at a moments notice. To protect your family, the best defense against an emergency is proper preparation.

Being caught in the wilderness without cell phone reception or a vehicle can be very scary. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to prepare for such a situation and ensure that you will be safe.

With one simple trip to the grocery store you can find plenty of great items to keep your family safe in the event of an emergency. To help anyone looking to put together a survival pack in a hurry, check out the following list of items available at most grocery stores that can be included in your family's survival kit.

A local flood, broken water mains from an earthquake, piping and pump failures, contamination at a water treatment facility, or any potential breach of a safe water supply may cause authorities to issue a "boil water" order. Such an order may come from your water district or local Public Health agency. What exactly should you do when your water supply is compromised and a boil water order has been issued by your city or municipality?

To help Americans confused about what items to put in an emergency first aid kit, we have put together the following list of emergency first aid essentials.

There are dozens of different types of emergency kits – some that can fit inside a fanny pack, and others that are designed to keep groups of up to 100 people safe for 72 hours. To help anyone thinking about buying an emergency survival kit we have put together the following article explaining the 5 most popular ones.

People always wonder, what can I do as a citizen to help prevent terrorism. Most believe that they can have no impact or would even come into contact with people with terrorism on their mind. The Office of Homeland Security along with its regional offices is working closely with local, state, federal and international jurisdictions to prevent terrorism. But everyone in every neighborhood across the country needs to help with this effort

Obviously, you need to have a family communications plan in place prior to emergencies or severe weather events. That means designating someone out of your area (or state) as a central contact, and making sure that all family members know who the contact is and how to call them should you become separated.

In an emergency survival situation, you may be tempted to store water in any available container. However, when you can plan for emergency water storage, your water storage options can be better defined.

You may have heard that in case of an emergency, your hot water heater is an excellent source of 40 to 50 gallons of fresh water. However, how many of you know how to get the water out, and is your hot water heater full of clean water?