It's National Preparedness Month

September has been deemed National Preparedness Month. Do you have a plan in place in case of disaster: for your family and for your ranch? Yakima County Emergency Services Public Information Officer Kent Catlin says just having the discussion helps in being prepared

Catlin: "If you have a plan and you have thought about what you would do if your livestock were impacted by a disaster you don't have to start and develop a plan in the middle of a disaster. In the middle of a disaster is not the time to have to invent the wheel. If you can do your due diligences before hand then all you have to worry about is following what you had already laid out. So the planning helps to prevent some of the pain and confusion that you would experience during the actual disaster."

Catlin continues with more details.

Catlin: "You have the plan as far as knowing what your disasters are. Taking proper precautions to having the important information relevant to your livestock operation as far as where your numbers are for vets if livestock needed medical attention. Back up numbers if your primary vet is not available or perhaps impacted by the disaster themselves. Numbers for renders if you are unable to dispose of carcasses right there onsite. Then the other piece of it too is knowing what your state and county emergency management is going to do because it isn't just natural disasters if there is a biological disaster that affects livestock like hoof and mouth disease."