Americans Are Not Prepared for Emergencies, Expert Says

Disaster is all around us these days, from the cyclone in Myanmar to the earthquake in China, not to mention the tornadoes and floods in the United States. So why aren’t most Americans ready for emergencies?

In an article in the Washington Post, emergency preparedness expert John D. Solomon says too many Americans are watching the devastation unfold in Asia “from relative safety and, if I had to guess, with a certain sense of complacency, a feeling that disaster on that scale isn't likely to happen to them. But it could.”

Solomon warns that even after 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, 93 percent of Americans still aren’t prepared for a natural disaster, pandemic or a terrorist attack. “This is troubling,” Solomon says, “because the more prepared a population is, the more effective the response to and recovery from a catastrophe will be.”

He also warns that readying the public for our 21st century emergencies might be one of the most complex socio-education challenges the nation has faced. In the article, Solomon offers 10 suggestions for helping make the public more prepared, including:

1. Make public preparedness a priority
2. Make preparedness part of 21st-century citizenship
3. Get back to the preparedness ethic from WWII and the Cold War
4. Increase public education
5. Teach children about preparedness
6. Try the carrot and the stick
7. Bring in business to help make the sale
8. Use 21st-century technology to prepare for 21st-century emergencies
9. Teach everyone the drill
10. Create a National Preparedness Day