Avian Flu Diary: Kicking Off National Preparedness Month

#12,738

Every September since 2004 the United States Government (FEMA & READY.GOV), public health organizations like the American Red Cross, along with like-minded individuals like myself devote a great deal of time promoting individual, family, and community preparedness.

With the harrowing scenes of tragedy and destruction still coming out of Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast, the need for greater public preparedness has never been clearer.

Over the next 30 days I’ll be posting a variety of new, and updated, preparedness articles along with my usual litany of emerging infectious disease information.

I come by my penchant for preparedness honestly, having been born and raised in Florida, and having my first brush with nature's fury at the age of 6 when a truly impressive Hurricane Donna put a tree limb through our roof in 1960.

Two years later Florida was practically on a war footing, with schools practicing `duck and cover’ drills and handing out civil defense pamphlets on radiation sickness and building fallout shelters, during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Add in the fact that for a lot of my childhood my family and I lived aboard an aging 63 foot boat (see below), and well . . . preparedness was something we thought about, and practiced, a lot.

My first hurricane as an `emergency responder' was Agnes in 1972, when I helped set up an emergency shelter and provided first aid after a tornado ripped through a local trailer park. I would go on to become an EMT, and then a Paramedic in 1974, largely due to that early experience.

Over the years I would spent another 11 years living aboard sailboats on the West Coast of Florida and the Keys, followed by 10 years living on 25 acres in the backwoods of Missouri.

For me, being prepared has just been part of life.

And that primarily meant having an emergency plan, a good first aid kit, a `disaster buddy' or two, and the food, water, and supplies to hunker down for a week or more if the power went out, or the roads became impassible.

For those who equate prepping with sensationalized cable TV and Internet `Doomsday-type’ preppers, I'm sure I'd be a disappointment. I don't own a bunker, an armory, or a 10-year supply of freeze dried foods.

My preps are far more modest, focused more on making it through the end of the month, than the end of the world.

The goal of #NatlPrep 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).

And for my money, perhaps most importantly, having – and being – a `disaster buddy’.

In NPM14: In an Emergency, Who Are You Going To Call?, I wrote that a `Disaster Buddy’ is simply someone you have prearranged that you can call on during a crisis, and who in turn, can call on you if they need help. And the more `disaster buddies’ you have in your personal network, the more options you will have in an emergency.

Over the next month I'll be devoting considerable blog time and space to the topic of disaster preparedness. Along the way we'll look at some threats you and your family may not have considered.

I hope you’ll take some time during the coming weeks to think about how to make your family, business, or community better prepared to deal with the next disaster, and then act on it.