September is National Preparedness Month, why just one month?

I know, I have a post already that basically has the same title.

Not too many people know that September, the traditional back to school month is also Preparedness Month. For some unknown reason, the Powers that Be have determined that this month is the only month you should be concerned about being prepared.  That’s like saying disasters only happen in September because that’s the month you’re prepared for them.

With that mindset, it’s no wonder that so many people are totally clueless about what it takes to be just moderately prepared for events that will happen.

There are some people out there living in denial with the thought that nothing ever happens to them or will happen to them. That’s fine if you want to keep your head in the sand or as some would call it, their head up their fourth point of contact.

These beneficial members of society, the sheeple, go through life with blinders on their head totally unaware of what goes on around them or outside their little bubble of life. These are also the same people who will totally freak out and go Chicken Little when something out of their control does happen.

I’m not a gloom and doom person but I am aware that events beyond my control can and will happen. Some examples of this are the flooding in the Philippines, India losing some of their power grid not just once but twice in a very short time frame. Earthquakes, wildfires and all kinds of natural disasters happen all the time. For a quick course on recent events, google wildfires and you’ll see that at last count, 26,500 acres in one state alone have been consumed along with 70 homes.

How many of those people who have lost their homes were prepared for such an event?

Statistics show that out of those 70 households, 3-5 might have been prepared for such an event. That means that they knew they were in a region that is susceptible to wildfires and might have even taken some precautions such as moving plants and bushes away from the house that are normally referred to as ‘foundation planting’. Some might have even cut back tree limbs that were growing over a portion of their home while others could have conceivably had pre-packed E-kits ready to go in case they had to evacuate.

Considering the number of citizens who move or live somewhere that is susceptible to natural events like a wildfire, floods, earthquakes, not very many are prepared at all. FEMA recommends that each home have at a bare minimum, 72 hours of supplies on hand in the event of a disaster. Of course some people think that having their freezers stocked is one way to be prepared. Not denying that having a full freezer is a good thing to consider but if the power goes out, in 72 hours all that frozen food could be thawing out and not consumable. Take the freezer issue one step further. While you’re stocking up on all those frozen vittles, purchase a generator that is capable of running the freezer so at least for a few days you can keep it cold. But, with a generator now comes additional prepping as in fuel storage. One option to consider is a Generac system found at most home improvement stores. These systems can run on gas, diesel or propane and some of the larger systems can power your entire home.

To recap, the discussion started with September being Preparedness Month. Why only one month out of the year should you be concerned about being prepared? Isn’t that kind of stupid to have only one month set aside for preparedness?

Being prepared for relatively common events in your area is also known as Mitigation. Yeah, that’s a nice $5 word thrown around by emergency management personnel. It makes them sound real intelligent when they speak or give a lecture. Mitigation just means being prepared for events that occur in your area, region or state. So when someone says we’re attending a conference about Disaster Mitigation they’re actually attending a conference about being prepared.

Now comes the part where most people hate talking about disasters. These are the same people who see or read about some event in the newspaper or on TV and shake their heads with an attitude of ‘sucks to be them’.

No one enjoys speaking about disasters. Truthfully, I hate talking about it when I conduct a class. As soon as I mention disasters, I can see the eyes glaze over and the students and attendees try to stay awake while they think of all the things they could be doing had they not signed up for the class. Most of them actually go to sleep with their eyes open.

Talking about disaster mitigation is like listening to an insurance salesman. You know what they say is something important but you really don’t give a shit because all you want to know is what it’s going to cost you monthly and what it covers.

I’ll say this right now and it’s probably something all of us have heard at sometime during our lives.

Failure to pay attention leads to failure.

What does it take to contact your local county or state emergency management agency and find out what most commonly occurs? Or for that matter, your city hall about their disaster mitigation plan? (You’d be surprised to know that most cities don’t even have a plan on file or a clue about what you’re asking about.)

That is not a difficult task to accomplish and as a benefit, you might even get them to send you some information plus maybe even links to their website where you can get even more information.

The  point I’m trying to make is preparedness is not just a one month event, it’s a year-long event. The more you’re prepared the less of an inconvenience it will be when something happens.

Please try not to be a negative statistic when disaster strikes.

For more information:

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index.php?lang=eng