Be Prepared
In your day-to-day life, emergencies can happen at any moment. When a disaster strikes, the most important person is you, and your family's safety, comfort, and general well-being may be entirely in your hands. If you are well prepared, you will be in a better position to help your family, friends, and neighbours.
Emergency officials, first responders, and community agencies can handle "normal" emergencies, but will likely be overwhelmed with a widespread or major disaster. Their immediate priorities will be:
- life-saving (first aid, search and rescue, evacuations, medical care)
- damage control (fighting fires, preventing the spread of disease, dealing with hazardous materials)
- restoring or maintaining critical services needed for emergency response (E.g. transportation, hospitals, emergency shelters, communications, and basic utilities)
Learn more below about how to prepare for an emergency.
Know the risks
The Township of Langley regularly reviews the hazards and risks in our community based on the probability of occurrence and the potential consequences. The main hazards for the Township are summarized below. Knowing how you can prepare for them, will help keep everyone safe and ensure your family's immediate needs are met, especially while you wait for first responders and the Township to respond.
Remember, we need to be prepared for large scale emergencies like the ones listed above, but we also must be prepared for day-to-day events that can also impact your family. We have listed below how you may be impacted during emergencies.
How emergencies impact you
When preparing for emergencies, it is important to understand immediate, short-term and potential long-term impacts and how they can impact your day to day activities.
- Immediate impacts: injuries and fatalities, displacement, damaged structures and critical infrastructure (roads, buildings etc.), disrupted daily life, loss of comfort, evacuations, disruption of essential services , loss of power, debris
- Short-term impacts: secondary disasters, increased risk of disease, food and water contamination, communication failures, damaged water and sewage systems, poor air quality, business disruption, response and recovery costs loss of livelihood.
- Long-term impacts: psychological trauma, financial strain, long-tern health complications, housing availability, food security, cost of cleanup and recovery, social unrest
Knowing what hazards can occur and how they may impact you and your loved ones is the first step in keeping your family safe.
Make a plan
An emergency can occur at any time, maybe while you are at home, work, school, or driving. One of the most important things you can do is know how you will connect with your family in case of an emergency. Knowing where you will meet if you are separated from your family and how you will communicate with each other will give you peace of mind.
Download and use this family communications plan (fillable PDF format) in Case of Emergency (ICE).
Prepare a kit
Having essential supplies on hand in an emergency is vital part of preparedness. It is important to prepare a Family Emergency Kit ( also known as a Shelter In Place Kit) that will support you and your family for a minimum of 72 hours and up to one week. Refresh your kits every 6 months to ensure your supplies are usable. Below is a 5 Weeks to Preparedness campaign to help guide you through the process. Remember, it is highly likely that you already have everything at home, it is just a matter of putting it all in one spot.
This is in no way an exhaustive list of what should be in your kit, however it gives you an idea of how to build your own kit. Be sure to pay attention to specific needs or considerations you or your loved ones may have.
| Week 1: first aid |
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| Week 2: personal hygiene items |
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| Week 3: food and kitchen supplies |
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| Week 4: emergency tools |
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| Week 5: important documents |
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Photocopies of the following. Email a copy to yourself and store a copy on an encrypted PDF.
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Helpful resources
Access these additional useful preparedness resources.
Stay informed
Visit and subscribe to our news feed, subscribe to our eNewsletters, and follow us on social media for the most up-to-date information during emergencies.