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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recognizes August as Children and Youth Preparedness Month because children often react to stressful events (like natural disasters) by developing mental health symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Â鶹Çø’s Environmental Health and Safety Department (EHS) would therefore like to share the CDC’s recommendations for how you can help your children cope with traumatic events.

Emergencies can happen at any time, so it’s important for parents and caregivers to know the steps they can take to protect themselves and their children and ensure children feel safe. That means planning, preparing, practicing, staying informed, and getting any support your child may need after an emergency.

Plan

• Discuss plans for emergencies with your children; make emergency plans together.
• Maintain a list of family members who can serve as emergency contacts.
• Create a plan for how you can reunite with family members as soon as it is safe to do so after an emergency.
• Identify an alternative location to reunite if going home is not safe, such as a school, community center, or place of worship.

Prepare and Practice

• Create an emergency supply kit that includes:                     
  • A three-day supply of necessities (including food, water, and medicine) for every member of your household;
  • Flashlight; and
  • Games and toys to keep your children calm.
• Teach your children how to call 911 and have them memorize important phone numbers.
• Discuss with your children the different types of emergencies (including weather emergencies like thunderstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes).

Stay Informed 

• Sign up for  to get emergency alerts from the City. Notify NYC is the City’s official source of emergency information, including weather emergencies and subway and road closures. Download the Notify NYC app for mobile devices or visit NYC.gov/notifynyc, call 311 (for Video Relay Service: 212-639-9675; for TTY: 212-504-4115), or follow NotifyNYC on X. 
• During an emergency, follow instructions from on-scene emergency responders or monitor NotifyNYC and local radio, television, and internet news services for the latest information, including information about emergency shelters. 
• During some emergencies, officials may advise you to stay where you are (shelter in place). Generally, this means that it is safest for you to remain in your apartment. 
• If an emergency requires that you shelter in place, do not leave your place of safety to pick up your children from school until the danger has passed and shelter-in-place orders have been lifted. Schools have their own shelter-in-place procedures. You will endanger yourself by leaving a safe area during the emergency.  

If you need any information or assistance with getting to an emergency shelter, please call 311 (for Video Relay Service: 212-639-9675; for TTY: 212-504-4115). The City has a homebound evacuation plan in which people can be transported in an accessible City vehicle or ambulance, depending on their needs. 

Getting Support for Children After an Emergency

• You can help your children feel a sense of control. Manage their feelings by encouraging them to take action directly related to the disaster.
• Children can help others after a disaster, including by volunteering to help community or family members in a safe environment. Children should NOT participate in disaster cleanup activities for health and safety reasons.
• Allow your child to be with you or another trusted adult. Help your child feel safe and calm and give them a sense of hope. Children can handle disruption better when they know it is temporary.

If you have questions about this or any environmental health and safety matter, please email ehs@nycha.nyc.gov. Residents, employees, and any member of the public can submit environmental health and safety concerns at .

For additional information on child and youth preparedness, please visit: