Note: I’ve returned from my marathon 2700 automobile mile trek, exhausted – but relatively unscathed, and will attempt to retrain myself to blog over the next 24-48 hours.
# 5457
While I was driving through earthquake country last week (New Madrid Fault) an impressive tornado hopped- skipped – and jumped across central Florida on Thursday morning, damaging homes, overturning semi-tractors on the highway, and passed uncomfortably close to the Coston abode.
Thankfully, other than some small limbs down in my yard, I suffered no damage. Power was obviously out for a time in my neighborhood, but we escaped the worst of it.
We live on an unpredictable planet, where a tornado, hurricane, or earthquake - or even an industrial accident – can suddenly change our lives for days, weeks or perhaps for a lifetime
In 2009 Ready.gov came up with the following PSA demonstrating how quickly life can change in a disaster, and how to be prepared for it.
While we don’t like to think about it, events like these occur everyday somewhere, and to someone. We only tend to notice when it happens to a lot of people at the same time.
In 2005, hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated from the city of New Orleans as massive hurricane Katrina approached. Although the hurricane did not score a direct hit, the levees were breached and the city flooded.
Two years later, more than 30% of the city’s residents still had not returned, and for those who had, life in the devastated city continued to provide challenges (see USAToday 66% are back in New Orleans, but basic services still lag).
More recently, the triple disaster in Japan has demonstrated how quickly a crises can escalate.
First a massive earthquake, which was followed minutes later by a 30+ meter tsunami, and then incredibly, several nuclear reactors were badly damaged and continue to leak radiation.
For those living in the 20km to 30km ring around the Fukushima nuclear facility in Japan, they are now in their 3rd week of being ordered to remain indoors. Thousands of others have been uprooted from their homes and forced into shelters.
Many are cold, hungry, and lacking basic necessities.
Hundreds of thousands more have seen their homes damaged or destroyed from the earthquake/tsunami impact. Families have been separated, loved ones lost to the disaster, and thousands of businesses and livelihoods have been either destroyed on put on hold.
Life changed in an instant, and completely without warning, for millions of people on March 11th.
While we may thank our lucky stars it didn’t happen to us, there are no guarantees that it won’t be an earthquake in the U.S., Canada, or Europe that makes the headlines tomorrow.
In anticipation of such an event, later this Spring 8 mid-west states will hold their very first Great Central U.S. ShakeOut at 10:15am on April 28th.
Or perhaps it will be a nuclear accident at one of the 400+ power plants around the world, a CAT 5 hurricane slamming into a coastal city, a spring tornado outbreak in the Midwest, or even a fast moving epidemic that affects you and your loved ones.
While we can’t prevent these events, we can prepare for them, and in doing so help blunt their impact. That is why agencies like FEMA and READY.GOV push so hard for individual, community, and business preparedness.
First and foremost, everyone should have a disaster or Emergency plan. Ready.gov has a variety of online forms and tools available to help you with this first, crucial step.
Try the Online Family Emergency Plan (FEP) Tool
No Time for Online Forms?
Download the Family Emergency Plan (FEP) PDF pages, print and fill them in Offline.
Download All FEP Pages 3 Mb
Download the MS Excel FEP 400 Kb
In addition, everyone should have a good first aid kit, a `bug-out bag’, and sufficient emergency supplies to last a bare minimum of 72 hours.
And as event in Japan have demonstrated, 72-hours may not be enough.
I personally recommend – once you get a basic 3-day supply in place – to work towards getting a week or even 2-weeks worth of food, water, and necessities in your home.
After Katrina, tens of thousands of people were either evacuated out of state or in shelters and without access to their meds or pharmacies. For those who rely on prescription medicines, having a 2-weeks to a month’s extra on hand of essential drugs for a disaster is not only smart, it could be life saving.
Something to talk to your doctor about during your next visit.
Some additional resources to get you started on the road to `all threats’ preparedness include:
FEMA http://www.fema.gov/index.shtm
READY.GOV http://www.ready.gov/
AMERICAN RED CROSS http://www.redcross.org/
And a few of my (many) preparedness essays include:
In An Emergency, Who Has Your Back?
An Appropriate Level Of Preparedness
Inside My Bug Out Bag
Red Cross Unveils `Do More Than Cross Your Fingers’ Campaign
The Gift Of Preparedness
You can search this blog for more preparedness information by clicking this link.
The time to start is today.
