Since 2004, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has observed National Preparedness Month each September through its Ready campaign. Officials say the goal of the campaign is to promote preparedness by educating Americans on how to prepare for, respond to, and mitigate emergencies and disasters. FEMA officials encourage residents to “stay informed about the different types of emergencies that could occur and their appropriate responses; make a family emergency plan; build an emergency supply kit;” and “get involved in your community by taking action to prepare for emergencies.”

National and State Resources

There is a wealth of information to help business owners, organizations, and families prepare for emergencies. FEMA maintains the Ready.gov site as one example. Another example is Listos California, a website created and maintained by the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES). Listos California offers information on preparing for eight specific disasters, including extreme heat, wildfires, earthquakes, and floods. The website includes free materials in many languages that can be downloaded, printed, and shared to promote disaster preparedness among friends, family members, and the larger community. Alameda County’s emergency webpage also provides a directory of regional disaster and emergency resources, including the locations of public cooling centers, warming centers, and clean air facilities, which can provide access to filtered air if wildfire smoke has affected overall air quality. Each of these online resources allow individuals to register to receive free emergency alerts. Officials encourage residents to sign up for alerts, which warn users of possible danger, natural disasters, and emergencies. Alerts can also explain ways to stay safe. Cal OES officials say users may get alerts about fires, floods, evacuations, earthquakes, and other public safety issues.

“When you sign up, you can choose how to get alerts sent to you, including cell phone, home phone, email, text messages, and in some cases, TTY devices,” according to Cal OES officials. “Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) are no-cost text messages for emergency situations sent through a nationwide system providing lifesaving information for families in the state of California. They are sent out for three reasons. Presidential Alerts are sent during a national emergency. Imminent Threat Alerts are sent for dangerous weather and other dangerous threats to life. AMBER Alerts are sent when a child goes missing in your area.” Not all devices can receive WEA alerts, which depend on a device's hardware and software. To be sure that your device can receive such alerts, check with your wireless service provider. To enable Android mobile phones to receive alerts, go to Settings > Connections > Safety and emergency > Wireless Emergency Alerts and ensure the feature is enabled. For iPhones, go to Settings > Notifications and scroll down to the Government Alerts section to enable them.

To receive earthquake warnings, individuals and families can download the free MyShake smartphone app in English or Spanish. Many Android phones with updated operating systems are automatically subscribed to Android Earthquake Alerts, which uses the same technology as the MyShake App. The Earthquake Early Warning System uses “science, state-of-the-art ground motion monitoring, as well as new and existing alerting methods to deliver warnings to people via cell phones before the strongest shaking arrives,” Cal OES officials say. Earthquake Warning California is the country’s first publicly available, statewide warning system. “Seconds to tens of seconds of alert can provide opportunity to take life-saving actions such as Drop, Cover, and Hold On and put devices into various forms of a safe mode.”

Next month offers businesses a great opportunity to test their earthquake readiness. They can sign up to participate in International ShakeOut Day on October 16, 2025. In California alone, more than eight million people are registered to participate in earthquake drills at work, school, and home. At 10:16 am local time on 10/16, participants across California will practice earthquake safety. Participation is not limited to October 26, however. Interested parties are encouraged to register a ShakeOut drill for any day of the year at any time. Organizers note that people in multiple locations can be included in the drill through video conferencing.

Disaster Resources in Pleasanton

City of Pleasanton officials have made it easy for residents to get involved in preparing for emergencies. The city maintains a collection of valuable resources on its Emergency Preparedness website, which is part of the City of Pleasanton’s larger official website. As the site notes, “emergencies and disasters can strike anywhere and at any time. Emergency preparedness can bring you peace of mind. The resources below will help you and your family prepare, respond and recover from most emergencies and disasters.”

In addition to resources on specific topics, you can also view the city’s Are You Ready? Emergency Preparedness Presentation. The 23-slide presentation explains how to prepare for specific disasters in advance and offers practical information about the most likely disasters residents will see in Pleasanton, including power outages. This year city officials are also holding an educational Emergency Preparedness Workshop for the public. The event will be held in the City Council Chambers at 200 Old Bernal Avenue from 6:30 to 8 pm on Tuesday, September 23. All attendees will receive a free emergency guide. Last year nearly 90 people attended a similar workshop, which was led by City of Pleasanton Emergency Services Manager Leo Lopez and Michele Crose, Assistant Director, Library and Recreation/Emergency Operations Center Coordinator.

To help companies and organizations develop effective emergency and disaster preparedness and mitigation programs, the two officials are working on an emergency preparedness video for Pleasanton businesses. The video project grew out of the city’s five-year strategic plan, One Pleasanton. One of the plan’s five goals is “Safeguarding Our City” through public safety and emergency preparedness. The Emergency Services Division developed a work plan to “assess the city's overall emergency preparedness capabilities, resources, and tools to implement changes as needed to ensure the City is properly positioned to respond to disasters,” according to Lopez, who says the work plan contains more than 50 tasks related to equipment, training, planning, and the organization.

One of those tasks is to develop and deliver a personal emergency preparedness presentation for local businesses. The new video, which is expected to be available next year, will help businesses and organizations develop effective emergency and disaster preparedness and mitigation programs. After completion, the video will be added to the city’s page of emergency resources. Organizations will benefit from this project by being able to identify their risk during an emergency or disaster, develop a plan, and be able to take action. Business owners and other executives will be able to use the video to help prepare employees to “effectively respond during an emergency or disaster,” adds Lopez. “This project will also help businesses help their employees prepare at home so that employees' families are taken care of during an emergency if the employee is at work.”

Lopez and Crose have been working with some businesses and organizations on the video, and they invite other businesses to approach them as well. “If there are other businesses that want to support this production in some way, by sponsoring the actual creation of the movie with in-kind or financial donations or by helping us develop content, we would love that,” Crose says.

Preparing for an emergency does not have to be overwhelming, according to Lopez. The most important thing is to get started. “Now is the time to create a plan. People should be creating a plan at home. That is step one. It doesn't have to be complicated. It could be one sheet of paper with some key information on it. Just knowing that you have a plan when something goes sideways is an important way to stay calm and be able to think things through.” Step two is putting together a kit, Lopez says. “Have a kit at home, a go bag, something you can grab and go if you have to evacuate.” Step three is registering for alerts. “It is really important to connect with good information sources, and we provide that on the website. We want you to stay informed, and not get sidetracked with what people are sharing on social media. Vetted information is provided through our links. So the top three steps are to make a plan, build a kit, and stay connected.”

Hacienda tenants can help prepare by connecting to the development's security network, which consists of 24-hour contacts for all tenants and properties. The network is used to help coordinate a response in the event of an emergency situation. Tenants and facility representatives who want to be a part of this network can contact the Hacienda Owners Association office for details at (925) 734-6500 or info@hacienda.org.

“We want to talk as much as we possibly can about emergency preparedness in the community because, as Leo says, we need a whole community approach,” adds Crose. “We have to prepare internally as city staff, but we need the community to also do the best that they can to make sure that they are prepared.”

For more information from the Federal Emergency Management Agency on preparing for emergencies, please visit www.ready.gov.

For more information from the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, please visit www.listoscalifornia.org/disaster-readiness.

For more information about Alameda County’s emergency resources, please visit www.alamedacountyca.gov/emergencysite/emergency-site.htm.

For more information about the 2025 Great California Shakeout, please visit www.shakeout.org/california.

For more information about City of Pleasanton emergency resources, please visit www.cityofpleasantonca.gov/emergency-preparedness.

Leo Lopez and Michele Crose of Pleasanton’s Emergency Services Division can be contacted via email at LLopez@cityofpleasantonca.gov and mcrose@cityofpleasantonca.gov, respectively.

Photo by Alan Draper on Unsplash