# 8648
It’s summer, and for most American’s, disaster preparedness is the furthest thing from their minds.
It is actually understandable; we’ve haven’t seen a major (CAT 3+) landfalling hurricane in the United States since October of 2005 (Wilma), we’ve seen far fewer tornadoes over the past two years than normal, and we’ve not had a truly destructive earthquake on our soil since the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
But, as the survivors of Hurricane Sandy will tell you, it doesn’t take a CAT 3 storm to ruin your whole day. And while tornado outbreaks have been running below average for two years, that doesn’t mean we’ve been completely spared. The storm system last April that dropped roughly 80 tornadoes over 3 days claimed 35 lives across several states in the deep south.
April 27-30, 2014 Tornado Outbreak – Credit Wikipedia
And as far as earthquakes are concerned, we are seeing increased seismicity in Oklahoma (see USGS/OGS Joint Statement On Increased Earthquake Threat To Oklahoma), California , and Alaska. Whether that portends something bigger in the near term is anyone’s guess, but big quakes down the road are considered inevitable.
Add in summer wild fires, tropical storms, droughts, solar storms, industrial accidents, terrorist attacks, and even a pandemic threat . . . and there are plenty of reasons to get, and stay, prepared.
The National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health was established in 2003 in order to understand and improve the nation's capacity to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters.
Their website is a tremendous resource for all things preparedness related, and even offers FREE online certificate training courses, webinars, and lectures.
In their Video section you’ll find a great many offerings, and under Special Reports and White Papers you’ll find literally dozens of disaster related research papers and documents for your perusal. In other words, there’s more than enough here to keep you busy for quite some time.
But today I wanted to highlight their nifty Disaster Preparedness Wizard, an audio-visual online tool - which, in a few short minutes - can help you define, and then download a personal disaster plan for you and your family.
We looked at this tool several years ago, but it has been updated and improved since then, and is well worth another look. First, NCDP’s description of the wizard:
The NCDP Model for Disaster Preparedness
NCDP developed the “5 Action Steps to Personal Preparedness” model for the purpose of providing an easy way to think about preparedness that applies to any emergency or disaster. This is the way that we think about preparedness. Using this framework of 5 critical action steps will help you think through, plan, and create a family emergency plan.
Disasters can and do happen, sometimes with notice and other times, none at all. A storm can suddenly change its path, even slightly, and cause severe devastation. You can be prepared for any event. Being prepared is more than completing a checklist or assembling a kit. Being prepared requires planning based on thinking–thinking about the risks you face, the needs of your household and the way you and your family live and work day-to-day. It also means thinking about how you want to live during the days immediately following a disaster when government and community services may not be available, for days or weeks.
The Wizard takes you through the steps of identifying your local risks and hazards (see below), and then formulating a plan to deal with them; including how much water & food to store, setting up a family communications plan, and making decisions on whether you will shelter-in-place or evacuate.
By using the wizard (which includes downloading, and filling out, the 9 page PDF workbook), you can quickly devise a basic family emergency plan in an orderly, and sensible manner. As you use this wizard, you’ll be presented with a number of useful videos, lists, and links – all worth exploring.
Once you have put those preparations in place, you can then consider additional steps you might wish to take to help assure your family’s safety, and comfort, during and after a local disaster or emergency.
This preparedness wizard is also available (en español).
For more information on emergency preparedness, 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/
And some of my preparedness blogs, including:
