Disasters disrupt hundreds of thousand of lives every year. Each disaster has lasting effect, both to people and property. You should know how to respond to severe weather or any disaster that could occur in your area; hurricanes, earthquakes, extreme cold, flooding or terrorism.
Be ready to be self sufficient for at least three days. This may mean providing for your own shelter, first aid, food, water and sanitation. Don’t assume you will be able to drive for help, sometimes the roads are washed away!
Just in the last few years we have seen severe weather on the east coast, from hurricanes to flooding to severe snowstorms. Being prepared can reduce fear, anxiety and losses that accompany disasters.
Where to start? The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) developed a free guide, which contains step-by-step advice on how to prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters. This guide called, Are You Ready? Will give you what you need to be prepared.
To obtain your copy go to ready.gov or call 1-800-BE-Ready for your own copy. The printed book that I received in the mail is over 200 pages long. It is an in-depth guide to citizen preparedness. Everything from basic preparedness to recovering from disaster is covered. There are step-by-step plans, charts you can fill out and even check lists to help you be more prepared. At the end of each chapter is even a section on where to go for more information.
We may not all live in an area where there are hurricanes and earthquakes but disasters can hit any part of the country and it would be prudent to be prepared.
Nancy on the Home Front 