I listened with interest, hope and frustration this week as one person interviewed on the radio noted that this week's events in Japan, followed on the heels of New Zealand's quakes, really made him think about emergency preparedness. OK, maybe it is the fact that I do emergency preparedness for a living, but...REALLY!? Should it take an event of this magnitude to get someone simply to think about getting prepared?
As I mentioned in an earlier blog, our human nature is to disregard, put off, or just flat out deny the possibiity of something unpleasant or sad. Understandable, but it is something that we need to learn to do. And now! We have learned to buy insurance to guard against car accidents or house fires. We have learned that wearing seat belts will save your life if you get in a car crash. We have learned to put rubber mats in showers to prevent slips and falls. So now we need to learn to acquire a new skills set... Prepare for a NATURAL incident.
Preparing for disasters, manmade or natural, should be something we need to weave into our daiy lives. Rather than making it "that thing" so ominous we don't even want to name, we can learn to accept it as a part of our routine, like grocery shopping or cleaning house. Maybe not pleasant activities, but relatively neutral. Once we change the flavor of the label of preparedness, we can start building our cache of tools and supplies to help you survive whatever comes your way.
I doesn't have to be a revolution, but maybe a quiet, but resolute change in ourselves. I doesn't have to be difficult either. At http://prepare.fullerton.edu, you can find a simple 12 step program to get prepared in no time. It doesn't require you to stand, state your name, and tell us that you used to deny that disasters happen.
But it wouldn't hurt. Give it a try and let me know how it works out.
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