Emergency Preparedness Pop-Up

Austin Emergency Management is hosting an Emergency Preparedness Pop-Up at the Austin Public Library Ruiz Branch on Wednesday, August 19, at 3 PM. It's a free event, and if you're one of the first 25 people through the door, you'll walk away with a basic emergency preparedness kit—one per household.

This is part of a monthly series AEM runs across Austin Public Library branches, with one pop-up in each City Council district. They bring in other public safety departments and non-government organizations to share safety tips and get the word out. The materials and the presenters change each month to match the emergencies most likely to hit that specific area at that time—things like wildfire or flooding—so what you'll find here is tailored to the season and the neighborhood.

The venue itself has a bit of a story. The Daniel E. Ruiz Branch opened in November 1968 as the Montopolis Branch, replacing a bookmobile. It moved to Rivertowne Mall in 1983 and became the Riverside Drive Branch, then relocated within the Riverside Place Shopping Center in 1991. In 1998, a citizen vote replaced it with one of the library's largest branches, which opened in January 2004 at Riverside Drive and Grove Boulevard.

It's a low-stakes way to pick up some practical knowledge, and the kit is a nice bonus if you get there early. The pop-up runs on Wednesday, August 19, at 3 PM at the Austin Public Library Ruiz Branch, and it's free.