Late summer can produce rapidly changing weather. Severe thunderstorms, damaging winds, lightning, heavy rainfall, flash flooding, and power outages can develop with relatively little warning.

Late summer can bring some of the year's hottest and most humid conditions. Even as attention turns toward the beginning of the school year and fall activities, dangerous heat can remain a serious public safety concern.

As students return to school, families settle back into routines involving classrooms, buses, sports, after-school programs, and busy transportation schedules. This transition is also an ideal time to review something that can easily be overlooked: emergency preparedness.