As the immigration crisis continues across the nation’s southern border, migrants have been showing up suddenly everywhere from New York City to Martha’s Vineyard.

Local officials have been largely unprepared when the asylum seekers arrive unexpectedly, but Connecticut officials are planning to make sure that they are not caught off guard if a busload of migrants suddenly arrives at 3 a.m. in their communities.

In the first 24 hours after arrival, officials need to provide food, water, and shelter on a temporary basis, such as the local town hall or community center, William H. Turner, Connecticut’s emergency management director, said in a recent webinar on the issue. From there, migrants would be taken on state-contracted buses to hotels that are pre-selected across the state that have the ability to handle a large influx of migrants.

Officials cautioned that they are simply preparing and do not have any information regarding an imminent influx.

“We are not anticipating something immediately,” said Brenda Bergeron, state deputy commissioner who oversees emergency management and homeland security. “We’ve done a lot of work over the last year to develop our rapid response to a large influx.”

Turner agreed that officials always need to be prepared as record numbers of migrants are pouring across the southern border on a consistent basis.

“We’re in the business of preparedness, and that’s really what this is all about — making sure that everybody is prepared in the event that they do arrive here in Connecticut,” Turner said.

“A few weeks ago, there was a rumor going around that a bus was going to Torrington,” Turner said. “It wasn’t true. It didn’t happen. … While it looks nice on paper that they’re probably going to go to one of the bigger cities, the reality is they could show anywhere at any time.”

While officials said they could not predict the number of asylum seekers who might arrive at any particular moment, they said an average tour bus generally holds about 50 people.

Recently, classes were suspended for one day at James Madison High School in Brooklyn, N.Y. when nearly 2,000 asylum seekers were moved to the school’s gymnasium, cafeteria, and auditorium in order to avoid the rain and wind gusts as high as 70 miles per hour that were pounding their temporary tent shelter. The move generated national attention, and the families were soon moved out of the public school.

In Connecticut, officials said they would need to move quickly to help the migrants with the basic needs of food, water, clothing, diapers, strollers, hygiene kits, blankets, cots and cribs at the temporary sites upon arrival. The asylum seekers may need general health checks, dental screenings for emergencies, and prescription drugs, among others.

Scott Appleby of Bridgeport said that local officials would use their experience from a New Year’s Eve fire in 2015 at a 130-unit condominium that displaced 520 people with nowhere to go. They included residents from different cultures who needed immediate care “on a holiday weekend, unexpected” as city officials scrambled to help them, he said.

“Many may be coming from countries who don’t trust government,” Appleby said, adding officials need to make sure that migrants know “we’re here to help.”

Interpreters can be crucially important, and various documents should be available in Spanish, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Polish, and Creole, among others, they said.

Emergency management officials noted that asylum seekers rarely arrive on a cookie-cutter timetable and can show up at the least expected moment with little or no warning.

“It would be nice to get a few hours’ notice, but we may not get that,” said Rick Fontana, emergency management director in New Haven. “The important thing is don’t get caught on the blindside. It may not be Monday to Friday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. It may be on a weekend. It may be an evening. We want to make sure that we have everyone on the same page, everyone playing from the same sheet of music.”

During the workshop that lasted more than two hours, Turner said, “The goal is to leave you all better informed and prepared in your towns to know what your roles and responsibilities are — and what you can do to be prepared at your town level in the event that any migrants arrive with limited to no notice.”