FEMA Disaster Planning Guide

Highlights of the guide:

1. The benefits of being prepared - reduces fear, anxiety and losses; and limits the impact and perhaps avoids danger.

2. There is a real need to prepare – thousands of lives are affected every year and organized relief can take time to arrive. Know how to prepare for disasters common to your local area.
   
   

   "Forewarned, forearmed; to be prepared is half the victory." - Miguel de Cervantes

3. Know what to do before, during and after a disaster:
• Before – know the warning signs, develop a plan and assemble a survival kit
• During – implement your plan, help others if possible
• After – Make repairs and revise your disaster plan as experience dictates


4. List of natural disasters – floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, extreme temperatures, earthquake, volcanoes, mudslides, tsunamis and wildfires, asteroids and super volcanoes
   
5. Information sources both governmental and private
   
6. For basic preparedness – get informed, emergency plans and checklists, suggested skills, supplies necessary for any disaster kit, understanding specific hazards and their dangers
   
7. Manmade disasters – how to prepare for hazardous materials, nuclear power plant emergencies
   
8. Acts of terrorism and war – explosions, biological and chemical, all types of nuclear events and preparations that can be made

A 72-Hour Kit May Not Be Enough

While most of the advise in the FEMA Disaster Planning Guide is based on being prepared for 72 hours before help arrives, any wide-spread disaster is going to tax the local, state and federal government beyond where help can be counted on to arrive in that time frame. Being prepared for a longer period of time can make the difference in being mildly inconvenienced and being in danger of loss of life.

While there are survival and emergency preparedness groups that can provide guidance, the FEMA information doesn’t contain political or religious overtones. For someone just starting out in survival preparation, obtaining the FEMA Disaster Planning Guide would be a good first step and lay a solid foundation for your disaster survival plans. Remember “failure to plan is a plan to fail.”

Survival gear as suggested by the FEMA Disaster Planning Guide