September 2011 is the eighth annual National Preparedness Month. This year’s slogan is: “This September: A Time to Remember. A Time to Prepare” and this year’s goal is to turn awareness into action by encouraging all Americans to take the necessary steps to ensure that their homes, work and community are prepared for disasters and emergencies.

Few years provide more real-life examples of why we must plan: earthquakes and tsunamis around the world, oil spills, wildfires, deadly tornados and major flooding across the United States—we’ve seen it all in the last 12 months.

Preparedness is everyone’s job.  In fact, one of the basic tenets of preparedness is the assumption that in a big disaster, there will not be enough professional emergency resources to assist everyone. Therefore we must each be ready to take care of ourselves for a period of time that could range from hours to days.

Begin with household planning

Preparedness begins at home. If we are not prepared at home, then plans at our workplace become moot. The mantra for household planning suggests a simple three-step process: Get a kit. Make a plan. Be informed.

Get a kit. You may need to survive on your own after an emergency. This means having your own food, water and other supplies in sufficient quantity to last for at least three days. In addition, your plan must anticipate that basic services such as electricity, gas, water, sewage treatment and telephones may be cut off.

Make a plan. Your family may not be together when disaster strikes, so it is important to plan in advance how you will contact one another, how you will get back together, and what you will do in different situations.

Family emergency plan

• Identify an out-of town contact. It may be easier to make a long-distance phone call than to call across town, so an out-of-town contact may be in a better position to communicate among separated family members.

• Be sure every member of your family knows the phone number and has a cell phone, coins or a prepaid phone card to call the emergency contact. If you have a cell phone, program that person(s) as ICE (In Case of Emergency) in your phone. If you are in an accident, emergency personnel will often check your ICE listings in order to get hold of someone you know. Make sure to tell your family and friends that you’ve listed them as emergency contacts.

• Teach family members how to use text messaging (also knows as SMS or short message service). Text messages can often get around network disruptions when a phone call might not be able to get through.

• Subscribe to alert services. Many communities now have systems that will send instant text alerts or e-mails to let you know about bad weather, road closings, local emergencies and more.

Be informed. Some of the things you can do to prepare for the unexpected, such as making an emergency supply kit and developing a family communications plan, are the same for both a natural or man-made emergency.   However, there are important differences among potential emergencies that will impact the decisions you make and the actions you take. Contact your county emergency management office to learn more about local concerns and what plans may already be in place.

A sample household emergency plan, checklist for your emergency supply kit, and much more can be viewed or downloaded at www.ready.gov/america/getakit/index.html.

Other issues

The very young, the elderly and those with special needs present unique planning challenges. Resources to help you plan for these groups and more can be found on the Ready.gov website. For example, while we wish for children to be safe and participate in household preparedness, we don’t want to strike fear in their hearts. There are special tools and information available to help households with children. (www.ready.gov/kids/index.html)

Similarly, attending to pets in a disaster can get complicated. Special thought must go into preparations for these loved members of your household. (www.ready.gov/america/getakit/pets.html)

Resources

Much of what I share in this column comes from the excellent website www.ready.gov. Go there to read more on this important subject, download useful materials and get additional links. Do1Thing is the other excellent resource for household planning we always recommend. Do1Thing breaks the planning process into 12 very doable tasks—one to be achieved each month of the year. (www.Do1thing.com)

A final thought

We will never eliminate disasters from our world. But we can mitigate the emotional and physical impact they have on our lives and communities. The time to prepare is before the event. Take time this month to: Get a Kit, Make a Plan and Be Informed. You will never be sorry you did. Dwight Eisenhower is the author of my favorite quote on the subject: “Failing to plan is planning to fail.”

Why would we ever plan to fail our loved ones?

		Joe DeFors, BS, MPA, is a cofounder and principal officer of Comprehensive Emergency Management Associates (CEMA). CEMA is a full-service emergency planning firm based in East Lansing specializing in emergency planning, training and disaster exercise services for families, businesses and communities. Contact DeFors via e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .