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Sheriff's Office

 

Emergency Management

Get Information, Be Informed, Get Ready!

Build an Emergency Kit

A kit typically includes all the basic items your household needs to survive.  A helpful list of items is provided at ready.gov for you.

>>Build Your Kit Now<<



Create an Emergency Communication Plan

Create a family communication plan by visiting the ready.gov website and utilizing their “Make a Plan” tool.  This form can be saved electronically or printed for easy reference.

>>Start Your Plan Today<<



Talk as a family about evacuation plans

Having a plan before an event happens can ease stress on all family members.  Identify and discuss meeting spot locations and find a place accessible by all for your emergency kit to be stored.  Ready.gov has some useful fire evacuation tips.

>>Create your Evacuation Plan<<



Store and protect your important documents

It is important to have documents such as birth certificates, passports, insurance policies, and such in a dry and safe place, like a high shelf or in water-tight bags; consider digitizing documents when feasible.

 


Community Preparedness Resources

If a disaster would strike La Crosse County, it could be days before help arrives and basic services are restored. Would you and your family be ready if that happened? Unfortunately, most households aren't prepared even for routine water main breaks and common weather-related power outages that leave us without utilities for two or three days. La Crosse County Sheriff's Office of Emergency Management along with the emergency response community strongly urges every household to prepare to get along for 72 hours following an emergency with no assistance. This webpage is intended to provide the people of La Crosse County with the tools to better prepare themselves for disasters. 

Individual and Household Preparedness

Being prepared for any type of event or emergency is always a good idea.  Educating your family members and making sure everyone is on the same page can be a chore; let us help you make this process easier by pointing you in the right direction.  With so many resources available to you on the internet, where is the best place to start? We suggest that you start by:

For Kids:

A few more things we suggest you can do to be better prepared is:

  • Save emergency numbers and email addresses in your devices for police, fire, hospital, schools and other essential contacts.
  • Designate two "in case emergency" (ICE) contacts on your phone: one local and one out town.
  • Download apps from FEMA, AccuWeather and local news stations from Google Play or Apple App Store.
  • Keep up-to-date "before" photos or videos of the rooms and exterior of your property on your phone for insurance purposes. 
  • Buy a waterproof case for your phone.
  • Keep a spare car charger or external charging device with you or stored in waterproof bag.
  • If you have advance warning of a storm or emergency, start charging your devices as soon as possible.

Schools

Schools are cornerstones of our communities. They educate, feed, and protect our children; lead and support community activities; and many serve as emergency shelters. In planning for emergencies, schools face unique challenges. Emergencies at schools can devastate a community.

La Crosse County Sheriff's Office, Emergency Management Division, works with school districts assisting them with their responsibilities to develop planning strategies, connect school districts with local first response agencies, and develop exercises to test school emergency plans.

Guide for developing high-quality school emergency operation plans - FEMA.gov

Ready Campus - Ready.gov

STEP Program - (Student Tools for Emergency Planning) ask your school district!

ILOVEYOUGUYS - Safety resource for crisis response

Businesses and Non-Profits

Businesses can potentially face a number of hazards, all of which need to have a specific plan.  These hazards include (but are not limited to):

  • Natural Hazards (floods, tornadoes)
  • Health Hazards (serious illnesses, pandemics)
  • Human-Related Hazards (accidents, violence)
  • Technology-Related Hazards (power outages)

Businesses and Non-Profit organizations play a critical role supporting citizen’s safety and recovery. From providing immediate feeding and sheltering assistance to supporting community recovery efforts, La Crosse County needs the private sector to prepare, respond, and recover from emergencies.

Businesses and Non-Profit organizations need to take purposeful steps to plan for emergencies. These plans should include procedures for responding to emergencies as well as maintaining operations throughout the emergency (Continuity of Operations Plans – COOP).

From severe weather awareness to connecting agencies with the appropriate response agencies to discussing planning strategies, La Crosse County Emergency Management can support private sector planning efforts to build resilience. To learn what you can do as a business leader, visit ready.gov business portal to download toolkits and other resources.

Statewide Outage Map

Use this list to report power outages in your area to your electric providers:

Additional Website Resources

Generator Safety Tips - Red Cross

Power Outages - Ready.gov

La Crosse SA - Salvation Army

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