Preparedness Assessment Tools Series

Every day we look at the news and sense that the many natural disasters and terrorist threats or incidents (oh, sorry we are not supposed to call them that anymore) are becoming all too real and that our government may not be capable of responding to help us in any meaningful way in the future.

In some cases there may be limited response to some incidents that do occur because of the response protocols put in place after the loss of so many responders during 9/11. Community responses to disasters can be significantly improved if the numbers of persons requiring assistance is reduced through preparedness efforts. Wouldn't that make sense?

Since ICE promotes personal responsibility for doing it yourself we decided to break down the task of assessing your preparedness/readiness by topic. As safety professionals we are acutely aware of the effort required to maintain focus and attention on serious safety matters for more than 15 minutes. We have tried to plow through the multi page "lists" that everyone seems to have and that you find on survival sites and such but they seem to primarily consider your "bugging out" to some remote wilderness retreat everyone supposedly has which makes them somewhat out of touch.

In some instances you will indeed have to move quickly and without much consideration for worldly possessions just in time to save your own behind and that of your family. Some people will not even bother to do this hoping the need will never occur or because the effort seems so herculean in nature. We hear you. We are always attempting to "upgrade" our awareness and response capabilities ourselves and balance having a normal, healthy everyday life.

Being paranoid or a survival "nut" can consume a whole lot of free time and effort....and your sanity.

We will break it down and assemble the topics in a "toolbox" or you can copy/paste yourself as you see fit. From time to time we will need to adjust the info on the blog so we will try and make those easily apparent for when you revisit. Our plan is to just make you think and assess and to allow you time to take some needed action. We have no problem taking a different approach when it is needed - especially if it works for you.