# 7622
Today, and for the next 30 days, you are going to be hearing a lot about individual, family, business, and community preparedness from FEMA & READY.GOV, the American Red Cross, a barrage of new Public Service Announcements, social media, and blogs like this one.
This combined effort is all part of the National Preparedness Month, a campaign that began in 2004, and has grown with each passing year.
This year is also the 10th anniversary of the creation of READY.GOV, a federal agency that promotes the idea that all of America should be prepared for a wide range of emergencies.
While the past 10 years has seen improvements, far too many American families and businesses remain poorly equipped to deal with a major disaster. And that knowledge keeps emergency planners up at night.
A recent Red Cross poll (Coastal Hurricane Preparedness May 2013), found only about half of those polled had an evacuation plan, 1/3rd have no home disaster supplies, and only about half reported having a family communications plan.
As these results are self-reported, and the quantity and quality of their preparations are likely to vary considerably, this poll may overstate the true level of preparedness in coastal communities.
Which is why every September I join in with FEMA and Ready.gov to promote National Preparedness Month (NPM13), by running preparedness essays in this blog.
For those who equate prepping with sensationalized cable TV and Internet `Doomsday-type’ preppers, rest assured we aren’t talking about digging a bunker, laying in a 10-year supply of freeze dried foods, or stockpiling guns and ammo.
The goal of NPM2013 is to foster a culture of national preparedness, and to encourage everyone to plan and be prepared to deal with an event where they can go at least 72 hours without electricity, running water, local services, or access to a supermarket.
These are, of course, minimum goals.
Disruptions that follow hurricanes, tornado outbreaks, floods, and other natural disasters can potentially last for days or even weeks, and so – if you are able to do so - being prepared for 10 days to 2 weeks makes a good deal of sense (see When 72 Hours Isn’t Enough).
Last year, in Making The Most Of The Day Before Tomorrow, I highlighted a very effective graphic from Ready.gov that shows the `day before disaster’ for all 50 states.
The date when it was still not too late to prepare.
Click through to the interactive map, to see each state’s date with destiny.
If you click on California, for example, you’ll get:
You get the idea.
The takeaway point is, you never know whether today is the day before your disaster . . .
We’ll be covering a lot of preparedness topics over the next month, but to get you started, I would invite you to visit:
FEMA http://www.fema.gov/index.shtm
READY.GOV http://www.ready.gov/
AMERICAN RED CROSS http://www.redcross.org/
If you are on Twitter, I would recommend you follow @FEMA, @CraigatFEMA, @NHC_Atlantic, @NHC_Pacific and @ReadyGov.
