September is National Preparedness Month
Having a month dedicated to preparedness is a reminder that readiness goes beyond the obvious supply checklists. In emergency management, the ability to sustain operations and protect communities depends on anticipating risks that often remain secondary in planning.
Two of the most commonly overlooked areas are:
- Sanitation: storm damage, flooding, and compromised facilities create unsafe environments that spread illness and slow recovery.
- Insect control: post-storm conditions accelerate mosquito and tick activity, exposing both responders and communities to preventable health threats.
To address these risks directly, Major Clean has developed two new Preparedness Checklists—one for households protecting families at home and one for responders operating in the field. These checklists don’t just cover the basics. They make it clear that sanitation and insect control are non-negotiable steps in preventing health risks. These tools help ensure that health protection is built into preparedness, not treated as an afterthought.
How Critical Needs Slip Through the Cracks
Disaster response is about priorities. The first hours are consumed by life safety, evacuations, sheltering, and power restoration. These are critical, visible needs. In that environment, sanitation and insect control are often pushed back.
Why this happens:
- Timing: Issues with sanitation and insect activity usually peak after the first wave of response, so they are not top of mind early on.
- Perception: Insects are often viewed as nuisances rather than direct threats to health and operations.
- Resources: Procurement and staging plans tend to prioritize food, water, fuel, and power. Sanitation and insect control supplies are treated as add-ons instead of essentials.
Leaving sanitation and insect control out of early planning creates secondary emergencies as disruptive as the disaster itself. Overlooking them doesn’t create just inconvenience. It creates preventable crises.
Major Clean’s Preparedness Checklists
Preparedness demands more than general supply lists. It requires clear, tactical guidance that can be acted on before, during, and after a storm. To support that need, Major Clean developed two new Preparedness Checklists—one for households protecting families at home and one for responders operating in the field.
Both checklists are designed for practical use in the field. Each one delivers:
- Action steps tied to each phase of an event: pre-storm staging, active operations, and post-storm recovery.
- Supply lists that go beyond food, water, and medical essentials, ensuring sanitation and insect control are prioritized alongside core needs.
- Preventative health measures that keep families, shelters, and responders protected from the start.
Household Checklist
Focuses on protecting households and pets, safeguarding important documents, and preparing go-kits that include sanitation and health supplies.
In the Field Checklist
Emphasizes PPE checks, staging sanitation resources, and sustaining operations with decontamination and insect control in the field.
Download In the Field Checklist
These checklists are adapted from FEMA guidance with added recommendations from Major Clean. They are provided strictly as informational resources to support planning and do not guarantee safety. Users must always follow official protocols, exercise their own judgment, and comply with agency standards. Major Clean assumes no liability for outcomes resulting from their use.
The checklists are more than reminders. They are force multipliers, helping ensure preventative health is never left to chance.
Preventative Health in Action
The checklists identify sanitation and insect control as frontline needs. Major Clean provides the tools that turn those priorities into real protection during disaster response.
Sanitation with OdoBan®
Floods and storm damage compromise shelters, vehicles, and temporary housing. Contaminated surfaces spread illness, and unchecked mold growth can render facilities unsafe for both responders and displaced families. OdoBan® disinfectants and mold inhibitors act as preventative health tools, keeping environments operational and safe.
- Kills 99.99% of germs† and viruses* in 60 seconds
- Controls mold and inhibits growth in storm-damaged structures
- Neutralizes odor from mildew, smoke, restrooms, garbage, and organic matter
Insect Control with No Mosquitoz®
Standing water after storms drives mosquito populations upward, increasing the risk of illnesses such as West Nile Virus, Zika, Chikungunya, and Dengue. High mosquito activity disrupts operations and adds unnecessary stress in shelters. No Mosquitoz® provides long-lasting, DEET-free‡ protection that is safe** for responders in the field and families in temporary housing.
- Works safely** and effectively against mosquitoes, gnats, and biting flies
- DEET-free formula‡
- Safe for use around kids and pets**
Major Clean as a Go-To Partner for Emergency Management Supplies
Preventing illness and maintaining operational readiness requires a partner who delivers both the supplies and the support you can rely on. In disaster operations, procurement speed equals mission success. A stalled order or empty warehouse can take emergency management teams offline at the worst possible moment.
Major Clean eliminates that risk. We maintain stock, move product quickly, and deliver in the quantities agencies require. Our supply chain is tested under pressure, proven during disaster recovery, and trusted by federal, state, and local emergency management agencies. Through our GSA schedule, agencies can stage mission-critical supplies quickly and compliantly, ensuring readiness before the next disaster.
Partnering with Major Clean means agencies gain more than a vendor. They gain a disaster readiness partner that understands the urgency of preparedness and delivers with the consistency needed when it matters most. That difference defines mission success.
Put Preparedness into Action
Preparedness only works when it is put into practice. Major Clean’s Preparedness Checklists bring awareness to often overlooked items that are needed from day one. With OdoBan® disinfectants and the No Natz® family of repellents on hand, health protection is built into the mission.
Download the checklists. Stage the supplies. Keep your teams and communities protected before the next storm.
Readiness is a choice. Make it now.
† A Sanitizer… †kills 99.99% of Streptococcus pyogenes (Strep), Escherichia coli 0157:H7 (E. coli) (pathogenic strain), Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus (Staph) and Klebsiella pneumoniae in 60 seconds on hard, nonporous, surfaces.
‡ Not a safety claim.
* A Virucide*… *kills Human Coronavirus, HIV-1 (AIDS Virus), Influenza A H3N2 and Herpes Simplex Type 2 in 60 seconds on hard, nonporous, surfaces.
** When used as directed on label.
