# 4856
Today marks the first day of National Preparedness Month, a national drive to get Americans better prepared to deal with disasters and emergencies.
As I write this, portions of the Eastern Seaboard are under a Hurricane watch, and in the first eight months of the year, 65 Major Disasters have been declared in this country.
Add to that the hundreds of thousands of smaller emergencies and disasters that strike Americans every year (household accidents, house fires, localized storm damage, etc), and the need to be prepared is great.
As an NPM10 coalition member, interspersed with my regular coverage of influenza and emerging infectious diseases, I plan to run dozens of preparedness-centric posts over the next 30 days.
Some will be repeats of older essays I’ve done, a few will be new, while others will lead you to important preparedness information online.
On twitter, look for the hash tag #NPM10 to follow online announcements about National Preparedness Month.
Since Ready.gov urges everyone to:
I’ll try to align my posts to those goals.
And since the first step is GET A KIT, an appropriate place to start is Ready.gov’s recommendations for a basic emergency kit. You can download & print this list by clicking the images or using this link.
Of course, this is just a basic list. Nothing says you can’t improve upon it, go for a week’s worth of supplies . . . or even two.
But this is an excellent place to start (assuming you haven’t already), and represents the minimum level of emergency supplies each household should strive to keep on hand.
And for those of you who can do better - you will be in a position to help your friends, relatives, and neighbors should a disaster strike.
Which makes preparing not only a good thing to do for your family . . . . but the right thing to do for your community as well.
Related Post:
- NPM10: The Rehydration Solution
- NPM10: FEMA Asks, "Are You Earthquake Prepared?”
- NPM10: Vaccination As Part Of Your Preparedness Plan
- NPM10: Inside My Auto First Aid Kit
- NPM10: The Gift Of Preparedness
- NPM10: Everyone Should Have, And Be, A Disaster Buddy
- NPM10: Disaster Preparedness For Pets
- NPM10: An Appropriate Level Of Preparedness
- NPM10: Ready Kids
- NPM10: CIDRAP’s Promising Practices
- NPM10: Disaster Preparedness Videos
- NPM10: A Family Communications Plan
- NPM10: Neighborhood Communications
- NPM10: Create & Maintain A Medical Hx
- NPM10: A Simple Weekend Mini-Prep
- NPM10: The Ethics Of Prepping
- Revised Risk Of `The Big One’ Along San Andreas Fault
- NPM10 Just Two Weeks Away
- A Reminder About National Preparedness Month
- NPM10 And Building A Culture Of Preparedness
- Safe Rooms: Improving Your Odds
- Do1Thing: A 12 Step Preparedness Program
- Resolve To Be Ready: 2013
- Ready or Not? TFAH Report 2012
- Public Health Practices (PHP) Update
- Black Swan Events
- The Gift of Preparedness 2012
- National Family History Day
- Paper: Are We Prepared For A Pandemic In Low Resource Communities?
- MMWR: Carbon Monoxide Exposures Related To Hurricane Sandy
- Canada: Another West Coast Temblor
- USGS: Eastern Earthquakes - Rare But Powerful
- Unreasonable Expectations
- Shaken, And Hopefully Stirred
- Sandy Strengthens Overnight
- Preparing For After The Storm Passes
- Sandy: Northeast Increasingly Under The Gun
- Reminder: ShakeOut Drills On Oct. 18th
- Dozens Of Ways To Spell `I-L-I’
- NPM12: Because We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Will Bring
- NPM12: One For The Home, And One More For The Road
- NPM12: Those Who Forget Their History . . .
- NPM12: The Ethics Of Preparedness
- NPM12: Disaster Buddies
- IDSA: Pandemic and Seasonal Influenza Preparedness
- Resolve To Be Ready: 2013
- Preparing For After The Storm Passes
- NPM12: Preparedness For Kids
- NPM12: Everyday Preppers
- NPM12: Surviving Disaster – Texas Style
- Making The Most Of The Day Before Tomorrow
- Yes, We Have No Pandemic . . .
- Because It Can Happen Here
- MMWR: Tornado Fatalities During April 2011 Outbreak
- A Disaster In Slow Motion
- Washington State: Volcano Awareness Month
- Video: Three Congressional Hazards Briefings
- Ready Kids
- Everyday Preppers
- The Tracks Of Our Fears
- The Opposite Of Worry
- 2011: A Year Of Catastrophic Losses
- Having An Emergency Fall Back Position
- NPM11: When You Have To `Get Out Of Dodge’ In A Hurry
- NPM11: Disaster Preparedness For Pets
- NPM11: Are You Earthquake Prepared?
- NPM11: Giving Preparedness A Shot In The Arm
- NPM11: Preparedness For Kids
- NPM11: Creating A Family Communications Plan
- National Preparedness Month Kicks Off
Widget by [ Iptek-4u ]