Disasters don’t plan, but you can!

We invite you to join us in taking an active role in protecting yourself, your loved ones, and your community.

During the whole month of September 2020, the City of Roanoke and our media partner WDBJ7 posted online resources featuring stories, trainings, and webinars on flood awareness and emergency preparedness.  

Prepareathon is a national event sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA’s Prepareathon encourages people and communities to take action to prepare and protect themselves against disasters. The goals of the event are for people to understand which disasters could affect their community, know what to do to stay safe, take action to increase preparedness, and improve their ability to recover from a disaster.

The virtual kickoff was hosted on Tuesday, September 1st at 10am on the City of Roanoke Facebook Page.  Click here for more information.

Thank you WDBJ7, Your Hometown Station, for being our 2020 Prepareathon Media Sponsor!

The following segments ran during WDBJ7@4 newscasts:

• Tuesday, September 1st, 4pm: Prepareathon Campaign Launch
• Tuesday, September 8th, 4pm: WDBJ7 Meteorologist Ian Cassette builds an Emergency Kit.
• Tuesday, September 15th, 4pm: WDBJ7 Meteorologist Christian Johansen prepares for a disaster.
• Tuesday, September 22nd, 4pm: WDBJ7 Meteorologist Brent Watts aka "The Weather Wise Guy" teaches kids about preparing for an emergency.

Tuesday Talk Series

Roanoke Prepareathon’s Tuesday Talks, a four part series during National Preparedness month in September, highlighted the importance of flood preparedness and flood mitigation strategies. The series was shown on Tuesdays at noon on Roanoke Stormwater’s Facebook page. The sessions were a live event, but recordings have been made available below so you can catch up on all the talks. Schedule of events:

• September 8th - Topic 1: Roanoke City History of Flooding - Marcus Aguilar, City of Roanoke Stormwater Utility
• September 15th - Topic 2: Roanoke County and Town of Vinton: Flood Mitigation Projects - Butch Workman, Roanoke County and Nathan McClung, Town of Vinton 
• September 22nd - Topic 3: Know Your Risk: Utilizing SHARKS & PUFFIN App - Leigh Anne Weitzenfeld & Conrad Brendel, City of Roanoke Stormwater Utility 
• September 29^th - Topic 4: Roanoke City & Consulting Partnership to address Downtown Flooding - Joseph Arthur, City of Roanoke Stormwater Utility & Don Rissmeyer, AMT