Planning is Everything

Success is most often tied to a good planning process.  Whether you are starting a new business, preparing for a big game, or working on a new project, taking the time to define success and the steps required to reach that goal is essential.  Your own emergency preparedness is no different.  Like any venture, preparedness requires the determination to meet goals.

Plans are nothing, planning is essential.
~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

All too often, emergency plans are paid little attention and soon gather dust.  The most valuable outcome of any planning process is not the written document, but the process itself.  Like many areas of life, the path is the purpose of the journey, not the destination. 

Have a Good Planning Process

There are a wide variety of planning processes taught and used by successful organizations today and each can be applied to your emergency planning process.  Find one that suits you.  If you already use such a process, simply apply it to your preparedness goals and away you go. 

Focus on Capabilities

Your plan should focus on what tasks you may need to accomplish in an emergency and how you will accomplish each task.  Generally, these common tasks are necessary regardless of the cause of the emergency.  Common tasks include:

• Communicating with family, employees, etc.
• Being aware and alert to the situation
• Helping others by avoiding danger and providing first aid
  
• Staying well-fed, clean, and healthy
  
• Evacuation
• Taking shelter
• Protecting property, vital information, and investments

Practice, Practice, Practice
Think of your favorite sports franchise.  Success on game day requires a good game plan and lots of practice.  Just as no team would head out to the field without practicing the game plan, you can't expet to be successful following an emergency if you don't practice as well.

Once completed, the plan must be tested, refined through another planning process and tested again.  Never rest on your laurels.  Circumstances and conditions change and you must change with them. This means you run through that fire drill with the family, test the communication call-down list, or exercise some emergency procedure at work.  Just like any successful team, you must practice until you get it right.

You Can Do This

The most successful plan will start with the basics, or what I often term the "small and simple things."  Your first time around the planning cycle, don't bite off more than is necessary.  Pick a few emergency tasks and get those under your belt, then expand to the more difficult ones.  Remember to pick the low hanging fruit first.  If you get hung up, don't worry.  You can do this.

Where Can I Turn for Help?

There are many resources for help in your emergency plan.  In addition to people, families or business that already have a good preparedness plan, you can turn to any of the following:

• www.ready.gov
• Your local emergency management agency (normally a county office)
• Local chapter of the American Red Cross

In future posts, we will share with you tools we have used in our own planning process to help you along the way.  Good luck and keep practicing!

Preparedness: Short and Long Term Principles

To first tackle preparedness, we must keep in mind that our needs and strategies fall into two general categories: short term and long term preparedness.  Each has its own merits and one should not necessarily take solitary priority over the other.  Remember to practice a holistic attitude to your preparedness steps.

Short Term Preparedness

Most disaster preparedness materials available from FEMA, the Red Cross and your local emergency management office will focus on your immediate needs following an emergency or large scale disaster. The time frame is typically 3-4 days and will focus on three main needs:  (1) staying well-fed, (2) keeping clean and sanitary, (3) treating injury and illness.

In general, short term preparedness involves little out-of-pocket costs and relies heavily on the supplies you have on hand already, simple planning steps for actions like evacuation or taking shelter, and communicating with others (family, friends, employees, customers). 

A simple guide to your short term preparedness are the following steps:

1. Make a Plan and Practice It: 
   Work with your family, co-workers, or employees to decide what you will do for certain emergencies that are likely to happen in your area.  Each community or workplace has its most common hazards.  Learn of these likely emergencies and make plans to evacuate, take shelter, communicate with others, preserve vital property or information, and how you will return to normal work or family functions. And don't forget to test your plan.  No plan exists that was never practiced. 
   
   
2. Assemble 72 Hours of Supplies:
   For the family, this is commonly referred to as a "72 Hour Kit."  To demystify this term, simply think of the supplies you and your family will need for a 3 day camping trip, and have it pre-packed and ready to go at a moment's notice.  This will include all the water, food, first aid supplies, flashlights, batteries, matches, candles, lanterns, eating and cooking utensils and other supplies you use when camping.  We'll cover 72 kits more in a subsequent article.
   
   
3. Be Aware:
   You must be aware of the hazards common to your area and how you will receive emergency warnings and information.  Local authorities broadcast messages through local radio, television, or outdoor warning systems.  A wide array of online resources can provide information through programs on your computer or can send you messages by SMS (text) messages or email. 
   
   By far, the best tool for emergency awareness is the NOAA All-Hazards Radio.  Inexpensive and very reliable, the NOAA radio can sit silent until an alert message is sent regarding severe weather events, civil emergencies, or other disaster messages.  NOAA radios can also be programed with SAME codes that allow you to choose which of the surrounding counties your radio will monitor.
   
   
4. Be Trained and Able to Help
   FEMA estimates that in 95% of emergencies, average residents are the first to provide life saving care and assistance.  You can learn simple skills and methods of saving lives, rescuing victims, and stabilizing a patient's injuries until they can be transported to the hospital.  Depending on the disaster, neighborhoods may wait some time before emergency personnel can respond to provide professional care.  By learning simple skills like first aid, CPR, using an AED (automatic electronic defibrillator) you can make a significant impact on a person's survival.  

Long Term Preparedness

Fewer are the information resources that focus on your needs following the initial 3-4 days of any disaster.  Principles of long term preparedness take on a more self-reliance tone as we focus on issues like:

• Personal health and wellness
• Financial wellness and debt reduction
  
• Emergency savings fund
• Maintaining proper insurance
• Long term food and supplies storage
• Maintaining a small garden

These steps require committment to disciplined saving, storing, setting aside, and in many cases, denying oneself things today in order to have the resources necessary to overcome problems in the future.  Remember Aesop's fable of the grasshopper and the ant:

In a field one summer's day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart's content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest.


"Why not come and chat with me," said the Grasshopper, "instead of toiling and moiling in that way?"

"I am helping to lay up food for the winter," said the Ant, "and recommend you to do the same."


"Why bother about winter?" said the Grasshopper; we have got plenty of food at present." But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil. When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer. Then the Grasshopper knew:

It is best to prepare for the days of necessity. 

Now is the Time to Prepare
Preparedness in its truest sense requires attention to both our short and long term needs.  Remember, like Aesop's ant, only you can best provide for your own needs following any disaster.  It may take time, but the rewards will certainly be evident in the "days of necessity."

Our Goal: Simplify Preparedness

The mission of this blog is to help demystify emergency preparedness and provide simple ideas, hints, solutions and stories that you can use in your own home and workplace readiness efforts.  Our posts and material will focus on all aspects of preparedness, including natural disasters, personal finances, health and welfare, food and water storage, emergency training, skills, and ways you can get involved in your community.

We look forward to sharing lots of information and invite you to become part of the solution!