Public Health Emergency Preparedness

How to Prepare for an Emergency

Individual and Family Preparedness

Public health is involved in planning for a wide range of public health emergencies including seasonal, pandemic and avian flu, bioterrorism and anthrax.

Our Home Care Guide (below) has information and suggestions about how to prepare and care for yourself and your family before, during and after an incident or emergency.

Other resources include the American Red Cross ECHO (Emergency Community Health Outreach), and the Minneapolis Office of Emergency Management

Home Care Guide

The Minneapolis Health Department has developed this guide to share information and suggestions about how to prepare and care for yourself and your family before, during and after an emergency. This guide helps explain how to care for a sick person at home and when to call for medical advice or assistance.


Home Care Guide - English (pdf)	Home Care Guide - Somali (pdf)	Home Care Guide - Hmong (pdf)	Home Care Guide - Spanish (pdf)

Family Emergency Planning

The Minneapolis Department of Health has this one-page aid to help your family be prepared for an incident or emergency. This aid provides possible suggestions about information you might want to include in a family disaster plan. It is not all inclusive and should be modified to suit your individual or family needs. Remember to keep your contact information up to date.


Family Emergency Plan - English (pdf)	Family Emergency Plan - Hmong (pdf)	Family Emergency Plan - Somali (pdf)	Family Emergency Plan - Spanish (pdf)

Community and Faith-based Organizations

Preparedness Tools:

Building Community Resiliency:
COOP & Inclusive Planning for Community Based Organizations - Key Components to Community Resilience
(11:00 minutes) with closed captioning, with audio description

Business Owners

Ready.gov has information to help businesses prepare for emergencies.

Other Resources

For more information on local, state and federal public health preparedness planning use the resources below.