Virginia now has a free emergency preparedness app for staying up-to-date on weather alerts, shelters and other related information.
“This new app is one of the most important ones Virginians can install on their mobile devices. Now our citizens can get ‘mobile ready’ and ensure that their families are prepared for emergencies and stay informed with official disaster information when an emergency occurs,” Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) said in a news release.
The Ready Virginia app has several tools and pieces of information necessary to emergency preparedness:
- Users can register for emergency alerts
- An emergency plan can be created to include emergency contact information and medication lists and can be emailed to friends or family members
- Information is given on how to prepare for an emergency and includes extra information for older citizens, special needs citizens and pets
- Users can learn about different emergencies including storms, terrorism, health threats and chemical hazards
- A checklist is available for creating an emergency kit
- A “Local” tab provides links to local emergency contacts and alerts, calculates flood risk and gives the past 45 years of history about disasters in the user’s area
- A map feature allows users to find open shelters, evacuation routes, traffic maps and storm surge information.
The app is available for free download in the iPhone App Store and in Google Play for Android.
The Ready Virginia app was developed by the Virginia Department of Emergency Management; a new VDEM mobile website was launched to create an easier-to-navigate page for smartphones.
