TL;DR: Asheville says make a written family emergency plan during September Emergency Preparedness Month.

TL;DR: The City of Asheville urges every household to make a written family emergency plan during September Emergency Preparedness Month.

The newest verified guidance was posted on September 16, 2026, by the City of Asheville, according to The City of Asheville article titled September is Emergency Preparedness Month: Make a Plan. That notice centers on a practical starting point: your family may not be together if a disaster strikes, so decide now how you will contact one another and reconnect if separated.

For Prepper Mom readers, that message is the whole assignment for September. Do not wait for a watch, warning, or evacuation order to think through alerts, shelter, routes, communication, and kits. Use this month to meet, tailor the plan to your household, write it down, and rehearse it.

Why September still matters for family readiness

In September each year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency reminds residents that they can prepare to face an emergency and protect homes, family, loved ones and neighbors, according to The City of Asheville. Since 2004, the Emergency Preparedness Month campaign has encouraged Americans to take the small steps that make a big difference.

The national backdrop helps explain the local push. National Preparedness Month, 2026, published by GovInfo, identifies this year’s theme as “Americans Stand Ready” and states the goal is to increase the number of individuals, families, and communities that engage in preparedness actions. That GovInfo feature notes that in 2003, the Department of Homeland Security launched the National Ready Campaign to promote preparedness through public involvement, by empowering Americans to prepare for, respond to, and mitigate emergencies, including natural and manmade disasters.

This year’s theme “Stand Ready” reminds residents of the importance of thinking ahead, not just for facing an emergency, but to create community resilience, according to The City of Asheville. That community link is explicit in related Asheville guidance summarized by Asheville.com in the article Asheville Urges Residents to Review Alerts and Evacuation Plans in September. That report says the city’s guidance connects individual preparation with helping loved ones and supporting emergency responders when they are needed most.

The same Asheville.com summary says the city frames preparation around three priorities: personal and family readiness, protecting loved ones and strengthening communities. It says residents are encouraged to become more self-reliant, take responsibility for family safety and participate proactively in community preparedness.

GovInfo describes the 2026 national ideas in similar household terms. It lists Americans stand ready to uphold patriotic duty, to protect family and friends, and to help communities. It explains that when individuals are prepared and self-reliant, they can bolster the work first responders do to help people on their worst day, that families know best how to keep loved ones safe when things go wrong, and that taking a proactive approach to get a community ready contributes to the nation’s resilience.

Here are some tips and links from Ready.gov, a national public service campaign managed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and FEMA, helping residents know how to prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies and natural disasters, according to The City of Asheville. As the Asheville Fire Department understands, preparation can be the key to weathering the storm.

Step 1: Meet with your family and ask five questions

The City of Asheville outlines Step 1 as meeting with family, friends or household to start an emergency plan. The city lists five discussion questions to put a plan together.

Those five starter questions are:

  • How will I receive local emergency alerts and warnings?
  • What is my shelter plan?
  • What is my evacuation route?
  • What is my family or household communication plan?
  • Do I need to update my emergency preparedness kit?

That five-question check works because separation is the normal case in a daytime event. Kids may be at school, adults may be at work, and phones may not cooperate. The City of Asheville says now is a great time, as part of Emergency Preparedness Month, to learn the steps to making a plan that could mean family safety and security in times of emergency.

Asheville.com notes the city issued the practical guidance on September 10 as a focus for Emergency Preparedness Month. That timing matters for moms building a September checklist: review how warnings reach you, where you would go during an evacuation, and how family members could reconnect, before the next storm cycle forces those choices.

Get alerts from more than one source

A first step is checking more than one way to receive urgent information, according to Asheville.com. Asheville points residents to the city’s AVL Alert system, Buncombe County’s BC Alerts service and NOAA Weather Radio so a household does not depend on a single channel.

AVL Alert is Asheville’s emergency notification system, according to Asheville.com. Enrollment automatically subscribes a user to emergency alerts, and users can choose their communication methods, revise contact information and change optional subscriptions by signing into their accounts.

BC Alerts provides urgent and important Buncombe County information to residents and visitors in real time, according to Asheville.com. Users can choose delivery to home, mobile or business phones, by text or by email. NOAA Weather Radio offers another emergency-alert option.

The redundancy point is worth acting on this week. Sign up, sign in to verify contacts, and confirm that at least two paths can reach each adult in the household. If one path relies on a mobile network and power, the other should not.

Decide shelter and evacuation details before you need them

The City of Asheville lists shelter planning and evacuation routing as separate questions for a reason. Shelter answers where you stay safe in place or nearby. Evacuation answers where you go and how you get there if local officials tell you to leave.

Households should decide on an evacuation destination before instructions arrive, according to Asheville.com. The city advises people to follow local officials, prepare for the possibility that an evacuation route may need to be traveled on foot and identify either a friend or family member’s home or a designated shelter as a destination.

That on-foot detail deserves a family conversation. Check shoes, carriers, pet leashes, medications, and documents you would need if a vehicle route were blocked. Keep the destination name, address, and phone number in the written plan so a teen or grandparent can act without searching messages.

Parents and caregivers can extend that planning to schools and child-care facilities by confirming their evacuation and reunification procedures, according to Asheville.com. Those facilities should have current contact information, including the person to call when a parent or caregiver cannot be reached during an emergency.

Residents can use Ready.gov’s evacuation guidance for more planning help and download the FEMA app for preparedness tips and resources, according to Asheville.com. Put those two tasks on the September list alongside the local alert sign-ups.

Step 2: Tailor the plan to your household

The City of Asheville describes Step 2 as assessing household needs and customizing plans and supplies to specific daily living needs and responsibilities. The city says to discuss how people in a network can assist each other with communication, care of children, business, pets or other needs.

The city lists factors to consider:

  • Different ages of members within the household
  • Responsibilities for assisting others
  • Locations visited frequently
  • Dietary needs
  • Medical needs including prescriptions and equipment
  • Disabilities or access and functional needs including devices and equipment
  • Languages spoken
  • Cultural and religious considerations
  • Pets or service animals
  • Households with school-aged children

For a Prepper Mom household, that list becomes the customization worksheet. Note ages and mobility limits, daily medications and equipment, feeding needs, languages used for alerts, school locations, work locations, and pet or service-animal needs. Assign who helps whom with communication, child care, transport, and animal care if the primary caregiver is unavailable.

Step 3 and Step 4: Write it down, then practice it

The City of Asheville describes Step 3 as documenting the plan and creating a family emergency plan quickly and easily using a fillable form. The city says to use the form to fill out information that can help a family be prepared, including household information, names and contacts of family members, meeting places and medical information.

Do not keep that information only on a phone. Print copies for go-bags, vehicles, and a trusted out-of-area contact. Review meeting places with children in plain language and confirm that every adult knows where the paper copy lives.

The City of Asheville labels Step 4 as practicing the plan. A rehearsal can be simple: test alerts, walk to the meeting spot, confirm the school pickup contact, and check whether the emergency preparedness kit still fits current needs. The city’s Step 1 question about whether to update the emergency preparedness kit makes that kit check part of the same September routine.

September is the prompt. A written, practiced family plan is the product. Start with the five questions, secure two or more alert paths, name shelter and evacuation destinations, tailor for medical and household needs, document contacts and meeting places, and run the plan once while everyone is calm.

Sources referenced