Community Preparedness

Make a Kit, Have a Plan, Stay Informed

Know what to do before a disaster strikes. Ensure that you make a kit, have a plan and stay informed.

Make a Kit

Emergency Kits should contain supplies that will last every individual at least three days. Considerations need to be made for those who are elderly or have special needs as well as for infants and toddlers.

Pets also need to have at least three days of supplies. Be mindful that during a disaster, your animal may not be able to go outside to use the bathroom. Training pads are helpful to have in your kit for those situations.

Additional planning tools and detailed information on assembling a kit can be found on the Virginia Department Of Emergency Management website.

Have a Plan

You should know what to do before a disaster strikes. View the Central Virginia Emergency Management Alliance Make a Plan website.

Once a plan is made, make sure to share it with your family. Go over your plan and practice regularly. Additional planning tools and detailed information on assembling a kit can be found on the Virginia Department Of Emergency Management website.

Stay Informed

Before, during and after any event, it is important to ensure that you receive your information from official sources. County-specific disaster information will be posted to the storm information page.

Weather Radio Set Up

While there are many weather radio brands and options, Chesterfield issues Midland Model WR120B radios as part of our preparedness kits. The following instructions can be loosely applied to all weather radios, but specifically mention Midland Model WR120B programming instructions. View the setting up a weather radio (PDF)

Chesterfield Weather Channel Frequency and SAME Code

Set your weather radio to the weather channel frequency (162.475 MHz) and Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) code (051041) for Chesterfield County.

Setting Up Your Weather Radio

View Videos
To help set up your weather radio, view two videos from Midland on Model WR120B programming and WR120 alert types (warning/watch/advisory).

Set Radio Channel for Weather Station
To set the radio channel, view Midland Model WR120B manual page 6 and visit the national weather radio (NWR) station listing to confirm the weather broadcast channel for your area. Information accurate as of Monday, Aug. 8, 2022:

Callsign: WXK65
Site Name: Richmond
Frequency: 162.475
Power: 1000
Status: Normal
Weather Forecast Office (WFO): Wakefield, VA

Program Your Receiver
To program your receiver, view Midland Model WR120B page 5 for more information.

You can program your radio for a Single, Multiple or All SAME code. Some weather radios default to the All SAME codes within range of the transmitter for the selected weather channel, which means that you will receive alerts for many areas. You will need to manually adjust this to Single or Multiple to only receive alerts from your area(s).

To program NWR SAME receivers with the proper county(s) and marine area(s) of your choice, you need to know the 6-digit SAME code number. Then follow the directions in your radio's user's manual. You can get your SAME number by calling 1-888-NWR-SAME (1-888-697-7263) for a voice menu or by viewing the NWR County Coverage Listings by State page. Information accurate as of Monday, Aug. 8, 2022:

County: Chesterfield
SAME Number: 051041

Related Terms and Definitions

SAME Location Code: This 6-digit sequence uniquely describes each county. For coding of a whole county, the first digit is zero. For coding of a part of a county, the first digit is a non-zero number. The 2nd and 3rd digits are the 2-digit state/equivalent territory identifier; the last three digits are the county or equivalent area identifier.

Transmitter Call Sign: Station call sign of the transmitter.

Transmitter Frequency: Frequency the transmitter broadcasts on. There are seven frequencies (in MHz) used throughout the NWR network: 162.400, 162.425, 162.450, 162.475, 162.500, 162.525 and 162.550.

Transmitter Location: City and state of the NWR transmitter covering the county. Some counties are covered by a transmitter in an adjacent state.

Transmitter Status: Current operational status of the transmitter. Possible status conditions are Normal, Degraded and Out of Service.