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Parade Highlights FEMA's Efforts To Use The Extra Hour From Daylight Saving Time To Safeguard Your Home

Release No.: 02-197
Release Date: October 21, 2002

Washington, D.C. - Every fall, Americans gain an hour at the end of Daylight Saving Time by turning their clocks back. On Sunday, Parade Magazine highlighted President Bush's Citizen Corps (www.citizencorps.gov) initiative to encourage Americans to use the extra hour to be better prepared for any kind of emergency.

The Sunday, October 20, 2002 copy of Parade reads:

"The Federal Emergency Management Agency's Citizen Corps says you should:

Check smoke-alarm batteries: replace alarms more than 10 years old.
Prepare a disaster-supply kit (water, food, flashlights, batteries, blankets)
Store hazardous supplies away from kids and pets; toss expired medicines."

Other examples of how you can prepare yourself for emergencies include:

Make sure you know where your local fire department, police station, and hospitals are located and post a list of emergency phone numbers near all telephones in your home.
Organize and practice a family fire drill.

You can also visit the FEMA libray, www.fema.gov/library, for more information on preparedness. The online emergency checklist is another way FEMA is working to make America a nation prepared.

Issuing a call to service for all Americans to embrace the spirit of volunteerism, President Bush announced the creation of USA Freedom Corps in his State of the Union address in January. The President established Citizen Corps, a component of USA Freedom Corps, to provide people the opportunity to volunteer in a range of homeland security measures within their communities.

Citizen Corps is coordinated by FEMA to harness the power of individual citizens through education, training, and volunteer opportunities to make communities safer, stronger and better prepared to respond to disasters of all kinds. FEMA is tasked with promoting and facilitating volunteer opportunities through Citizen Corps.