Note: This is day 6 of National Preparedness Month. Follow this year’s campaign on Twitter by searching for the #NPM or #NPM12 hash tag.
This month, as part of NPM12, I’ll be rerunning some updated preparedness essays (like this one) , along with some new ones.
# 6538
After watching Doomsday Preppers on the National Geographic Channel and Doomsday Bunkers on the Discovery Channel many people may come away thinking that all preppers are crazed fanatics gearing up for the impending apocalypse.
Which apocalypse you ask?
Why, take your pick. There appear to be scores of improbable nightmare scenarios fueling an `end of days’ fever these days, ranging from an all-out nuclear war to an asteroid strike to the fulfillment of the so-called `Mayan Prophesies’.
But for the vast majority of us who embrace the preparedness lifestyle - it is the far more common localized disaster that spurs us on:
. .. hurricanes, tornadoes, ice storms, blizzards, earthquakes, floods . . . along with even more limited emergencies like house fires, car accidents, or personal accident and injury.
Of course, if you want decent cable TV ratings, you don’t profile those who maintain a 14 day supply of necessities in their pantry, volunteer for CERT, have a well thought out family emergency plan, or take pride in keeping a well stocked first aid kit.
No . . . you focus on families with elaborate secret underground bunkers, a 20 year supply of freeze-dried foods, weapons capable of taking down Godzilla with one well-placed shot, and a firm belief that the end is nigh.
It is TV, after all.
While we collectively wait for doomsday (and I’m perfectly content to wait a long, long time for mine) we are nonetheless faced with an ongoing parade of lesser - but no less burdensome to those affected – localized disasters.
They happen with surprising regularity - and unlike an abrupt 30 degree shift of the earth’s crust or the eruption of the Yellowstone Super Volcano - are something being prepared for is actually likely to help.
A severe storm can knock out electrical power and phone service for days, sometimes weeks. Public services (including 911) can be severely disrupted, and something as routine as obtaining food and potable water for your family may be difficult for several days.
There are many legitimate disaster threats out there, which is why FEMA, READY.GOV, and many other agencies actively promote personal, family, and business preparedness.
To that end the Federal government has produced copious toolkits, brochures, pamphlets, and even mobile apps designed to help citizens prepare . . . for just about anything.
One such toolkit is FEMA’s Are You Ready? An In-depth Guide to Citizen Preparedness (IS-22) – which, at 204 pages – ranks as one of the most comprehensive guides to public preparedness available.
FEMA describes this guide as:
An In-depth Guide to Citizen Preparedness
Are You Ready? An In-depth Guide to Citizen Preparedness (IS-22) is FEMA’s most comprehensive source on individual, family and community preparedness. The guide has been revised, updated and enhanced in August 2004 to provide the public with the most current and up-to-date disaster preparedness information available.
Are You Ready? provides a step-by-step approach to disaster preparedness by walking the reader through how to get informed about local emergency plans, how to identify hazards that affect their local area and how to develop and maintain an emergency communications plan and disaster supplies kit. Other topics covered include evacuation, emergency public shelters, animals in disaster and information specific to people with access and functional needs.
Are You Ready? also provides in-depth information on specific hazards including what to do before, during and after each hazard type. The following hazards are covered: Floods, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Thunderstorms and Lightning, Winter Storms and Extreme Cold, Extreme Heat, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Landslide and Debris Flows (Mudslide), Tsunamis, Fires, Wildfires, Hazardous Materials Incidents, Household Chemical Emergencies, Nuclear Power Plant and Terrorism (including Explosion, Biological, Chemical, Nuclear and Radiological hazards).
Disasters happen.
And while they don’t often occur on a national or international scale (an assumption with which residents of Haiti, Pakistan, and Japan might just take exception), they can be devastating to large segments of our population.
Admittedly, a lot of the preparations highlighted by these `survivalist’ genre TV shows seem to be more than a little screwy, even to this lifelong prepper . . .
But having no plan . . . well that’s just plain nuts.
