Preparedness & Planning

The whole community (e.g., individuals, families, communities, businesses, and jurisdictions) needs to plan for disasters and emergencies, and the disruptions that often result. Click the links below to learn how families, businesses, healthcare facilities, and government organizations can prepare for disasters and different types of public health emergencies.

Personal Preparedness

Be prepared to protect your own and your family’s health from the impacts of a disaster or an emergency on the public health and healthcare systems.

Individuals, Families, and Communities

• Prepare Your Health
  • Personal health preparedness
  • Plan ahead
  • Create community
• Neighbors Helping Neighbors (FEMA)

Personal and Public Health Threats

• Pandemics
• Natural disasters
• Bioterrorism emergencies
• Chemical emergencies
• Radiation emergencies
• Other agents, diseases, and threats

Communities

• Nonpharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs): Planning Guidance and Checklists
  CDC has updated pre-pandemic planning guidelines for community mitigation strategies, including NPIs, that can be used to plan and prepare for a flu pandemic.
• Community Preparedness Toolkit (FEMA)
• School Preparedness
  Information about the types of emergencies schools should prepare for, why preparation is important, and how schools can prepare to protect students and staff.

Businesses

• Emergency Preparedness for Business
  Instructions to building occupants, actions to be taken by facility management, and first responder notification procedures; from the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH)
• Guidance for Protecting Building Environments from Airborne Chemical, Biological, or Radiological Attacks
  Steps a building owner or manager can take to protect building occupants from an airborne chemical, biological, or radiological attack; from the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH)
• Preparedness Planning for Your Business (FEMA)
  The Ready Business Toolkit series includes hazard-specific versions for earthquake, hurricane, inland flooding, power outage, and severe wind/tornado.

Public Health Preparedness

Before an emergency happens, it is important to make plans. Below are some resources to help you prepare for and respond to disasters. Click on the links to learn more.

State and Local

• CDC’s State and Local Readiness Resources
  Information about the Public Health Emergency Preparedness Cooperative Agreement, medical countermeasures, and more.
• Pandemic Preparedness Resources
  Guidance and tools developed for pandemic influenza planning and preparedness that can serve as appropriate resources for health departments in the current COVID-19 response.
• MedCon
  Tool designed to estimate the baseline medical care requirements (per 100,000 unit of population) following a disaster due to terrorism or natural phenomenon.
• Public Health Emergency Response Guide for State, Local, & Tribal Public Health Directors
  All-hazards reference tool for health professionals who are responsible for initiating the public health response during the first 24 hours (i.e., the acute phase) of an emergency or disaster.
• Engaging Faith-based and Community Organizations: Planning Considerations for Emergency Managers
• Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC)
  Information about EMAC, the interstate mutual aid agreement that provides a mechanism for sharing personnel, resources, equipment and assets among states during emergencies and disasters.
• Suspicious Package Indicators and Recommended Response Procedures
  Guidelines for local responders, based on existing procedures, on the initial response to letters, packages, or containers containing suspicious powders, liquids, or other materials. Developed by HHS/CDC, FBI, & DHS.

Healthcare Facilities and Providers

• Clinician Outreach and Communication Activity (COCA)
  COCA prepares clinicians to respond to emerging health threats and public health emergencies by communicating relevant, timely information related to disease outbreaks, disasters, terrorism events, and other health alerts.
• Planning Resources by Setting
  Tools for healthcare planners who are tasked with ensuring their facility is prepared to respond to a public health emergency within specified settings like hospitals, urgent care, and long-term care
• OSHA Best Practices for Hospital-Based First Receivers of Victims
  Information to help hospitals in developing and implementing emergency management plans for protecting hospital-based emergency department personnel during the receipt of contaminated victims from mass casualty incidents occurring at locations other than the hospital; provided by the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA).

Emergency Planners and Responders

Training

• Emergency Responder Health Monitoring and Surveillance (ERHMS) Course
• Strategic National Stockpile Preparedness Course
• Application and Integration of Nonpharmaceutical Interventions (NPI) into Pre-Pandemic Influenza Planning, Preparedness and Response
• Environmental Health Training in Emergency Response
• Reproductive Health in Emergency Preparedness and Response
• Keep Learning with Emergency Partners Information Connection (EPIC) Conference Calls & webinars
• Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication Webinars

Preparedness Tools and Resources

• Nonpharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs): Planning Guidance and Checklists
• Medical Consequences Estimation Tool (MedCon)
• Epidemic Information Exchange (Epi-X)
• Medical Countermeasure Readiness
• Planning Resources by Setting
• Reaching At-Risk Populations
• Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies toolkit

Response Tools and Resources

• Psychological First Aid for First Responders
• Public Health Emergency Response Guide
• Assessment and Surveillance after a Disaster
• Response Worker Health and Safety
• Guidance on Microbial Contamination in Previously Flooded Outdoor Areas

Legal Preparedness

• Legal Preparedness Webinar Series
• Regulations and Laws That May Apply During a Pandemic
• Legal Authorities for Isolation and Quarantine
• The CDC Field Epidemiology Manual: Legal Considerations
• Public Health Emergency Preparedness Clearinghouse
  The Public Health Emergency Preparedness Clearinghouse is a central repository for emergency preparedness-related statutes, regulations, orders, reports, and legal tools. The Clearinghouse is intended to aid jurisdictions considering updates and clarifications to their public health emergency legal preparedness activities.