Zombies, meteors, asteroids, oh my! Cleveland Public Safety speaks out about emergency planning

CLEVELAND - While we may poke fun at a nationwide campaign about preparing for a zombie attack, there's nothing funny about space debris injuring people. Cleveland Public Safety has your emergency plan.

With a meteor injuring nearly 1,000 people in Russia, and an asteroid half the size of a football field passing closer to the Earth than ever before, CPS wants to make sure you know how to prepare for an emergency.

Although the asteroid didn't cause any physical harm to our planet, some people believed it could have affected our telecommunications systems.

It may seem all of these things are unrelated, but the commonality is life is unpredictable.

Situations like these carry a lesson about preparing ourselves and our loved ones for whatever may come our way.

Whether it's wacky weather or the walking dead, there are three easy steps you can take to help prepare for any emergency.

1. Be informed. Before a disaster, learn how you will know there is an impending hazardous event. Familiarize yourself with the signs of events that come without warning and know the local advance alerts and warnings and how you will receive them.

2. Make a family emergency plan. Download the Family Emergency Plan (.pdf) and fill out the sections before printing or emailing it to your family and friends.

3. Build a kit for disasters. This means having your own food, water and other supplies in sufficient quantity to last for at least 72 hours. Local officials and relief workers will be on the scene after a disaster but they cannot reach everyone immediately. You could get help in hours or it might take days.