Municipality of Anchorage and state leaders want to make the best of what's been a stormy September.
Monday, officials held a public meeting to discuss disaster response and improving future planning.
Severe weather doesn't always have a direct path. It's hard to predict what will happen, and government officials can only tell people to be ready.
Sen. Bill Wielechowski said people should be prepared for major weather events that seem to be the Alaska norm.
"You have bad weather, extreme weather, that's Alaska, you're never going to get rid of that, but we've just got to be prepared for it, and I think one of the most important things people can learn from this is you have to be somewhat self reliant," he said.
At the emergency response discussion, experts said people should keep at least seven days of food and water on hand, and officials from local electric and internet companies said they want to work on getting things back up and running quicker.
"They're improving their social media presence -- they've got more internet presence where you can report outages, and you can find out where the outages are in the area over the internet, but again, people need to be self reliant," said Wielechowski.
Many speakers at Monday’s meeting mentioned that social media is something they hope to use more often.
“Social media I can't stress enough how much we've improved, and this is one the area of improvement is getting that message out through social media," said deputy director for the State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Michael O’Hare.
While social media is great for some people, Wielechowski said he recognizes it's not for everyone, and for that reason, he advises people get to know their neighbors because before help arrives, they can always check with the people living right next door.
For information on how to be prepared, visit www.ready.alaska.gov.
Contact Mallory Peebles
