Preparing for the possibility of relocating your whole family in the middle of a natural or man-made disaster is a daunting thought.

Fortunately for Sailors and their families the Naval Air Facility (NAF) Atsugi Emergency Management Office (EMO) has already begun preparing for such an event.

To kick off the new year, the EMO team began to lay the groundwork aboard NAF Atsugi by hosting a three day Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation (NEO) Drill for families and pets.

"NEO is important to practice so that the dependents can understand the process and procedures during an emergency or a natural disaster," said Emergency Management (EM) Leading Chief Petty Officer Senior Chief Electronics Technician Dennis Dawson. "Emergencies can occur at any time, and practicing can lessen some of the confusion during these times."

This includes preparing the NEO packet, which all families received upon their arrival to NAF Atsugi, in addition to creating, planning and practicing for emergencies.

"NAF Atsugi is a resilient community, that much is clear," said the installation's Emergency Management Officer Greg Wise. "Our community is smart and capable, we saw as much during the 2011 earthquake. We're now looking to improve our plans but to also raise our community's level of readiness."

During the most recent NEO drill the Emergency Management department processed 395 families and pets.

EMO Sailors train in a variety of ways, studying in the classroom and eventually moving onto real-world simulations of various types of evacuations.

Part of the process is educating service members and their families. For this reason Dawson recommends all members of the NAF Atsugi community review the U.S. Navy's emergency preparedness website at www.ready.navy.mil.

According to the Ready Navy website, it's imperative that families have enough food on hand for four days in addition to keeping all important paperwork in a safe location that's easily accessible to any family member. This includes documents like family plans and identification like passports, birth certificates and social security information.

In the aftermath of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, thousands of military families were voluntarily evacuated to the United States. By practicing the evacuation process now, NAF Atsugi's training office hopes to streamline any future evacuation procedures.

With the completion of the first of several predicted drills this year, EM is poised to strengthen and improve the resiliency of the community, according to Wise.

For more information, call NAF Atsugi EMO at 264-4184 or visit www.cnic.navy.mil/regions/cnrj/installations/naf_atsugi/om/emergency_management.html.

For more news from Naval Air Facility Atsugi, visit www.navy.mil/.