Week three of September is Preparedness Month makes a point to educate youth on disasters and how to prepare for them. 

Emergency Management Coordinator for Adair and Guthrie Counties Bob Kempf explains it is as simple as teaching them how to dial 911 on a phone along with teaching them to remember their home address and parents names. Kempf says as an Emergency Management Department they have given presentations to the local Clover Kids program, as well as local Boy Scout troops and the Adair-Casey/Guthrie Center summer lunch program.

“You’ve got to start early and just start building upon that so that we can get those numbers up so that as our youth become those adults, maybe we can have more than 77% of people that are prepared because every dollar spent in preparedness, usually, they say on average, saves $6 worth of expense after the disaster.”

Kempf encourages parents or guardians to implement the AlertIowa messaging alerts on their child’s smart device, if they have one.