Disaster Tip of The Week: Have A Battery Powered Radio and Extra Batteries

When a catastrophic disaster occurs it often results in the loss of power. However, many radio stations will still be able to transmit information over the air waves.

In order to hear this information, and hear news about highways, rescues, orders to evacute and other important information you will need to have either a battery powered radio, a solar powered radio or a radio that works when you wind it up.

The radios I personally use work with both batteries and through winding it up, but everyone has there own preference.

One important thing to remember though is if your radio uses only battery power, make sure you have plenty of extra fresh batteries on hand. 

Also excellent and highly recommended are the NOAA weather alert radios that you can set to come on during an emergency.

No matter what type you prefer just choose something and keep it in your disaster kit.

American Red Cross Launches New Preparedness Initiative

The American Red Cross Launches a new site called Do More Than Cross Your Fingers a new initiative timed with September to coincide with National Disaster Preparedness Month.

It focuses on taking the proper steps to prepare for a disaster and features both a game called Prepare 4 and the actress Jamie Lee Curtis (American Red Cross Volunteer) on video discussing items to include in your preparedness kits.

Through my blog here, I was lucky to get a sneak peak before the official launch of today, but was asked to wait until the launch before mentioning it. I have to say the Red Cross did an excellent job putting this together.

It also timely since FEMA just released a report on American Preparedness, which as many of you know we are severely under-prepared. I did a brief post on this report you can view here: FEMA Issues Report On Personal Preparedness In America or you can view the report directly here at: Personal Preparedness in America.

At the very least be sure to check out the New Red Cross site, the first link above, watch the video, play the game, get prepared.

FEMA Issues Report on Personal Preparedness in America

The findings of this report are particularly interesting in that a large percentage of Americans who completed the survey (30 percent) have not taken steps to prepare because they believe that first responders (Fire, Police, EMS) will be able to help them after a disaster, and that more than 60 percent are expecting the same first responders to help them within the first 72 hours after a disaster.

As we have seen in recent history those who are depending on the government, be it local, state or federal and emergency responders as their primary source for help will be the most vulnerable.

In addition, only 10 percent of respondents are prepared to shelter in place in their homes if required to do so.

Click the link to read the entire report titled: Personal Preparedness in America: Findings from the 2009 Citizen Corps National Survey

National Guard Drill Last Week In Des Moines, Iowa

National Guard units from three States Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska along with 500 members of other emergency response agencies took part in a a large scale drill last week.

The exercise was called vigilant Guard 2009, and included a simulated train wreak and about 166 Iowans took part in the drill playing injured and dead victims.

New Disaster Preparedness Survey Highlights Need For More Comprehensive Planning

A recent survey of over 700 small and mid-sized businesses in the United States and Canada was conducted by Agility Recovery Solutions and Hughes Marketing Group to assess their disaster recovery and business continuity plans.

The survey results indicate that though more small and mid-sized businesses are taking preparedness steps, the plans are not comprehensive enough and many lack planning around basic infrastructure and people needs.

In addition many of these businesses spend little time updating and maintaining their plans. According to the survey:

Of the companies with a plan, 12%
have not updated it at all in the past 12 months. Another
33% have only provided general updates. This means that
45% of companies have a continuity plan in place, but have
not taken the appropriate steps to regularly update or test
its capabilities.

You can view the complete survey below:

2009 Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity Survey

Full Disclosure:

Disaster Preparedness Blog is not affiliated in any way with Agility Recovery Solutions. All information, and survey used with permission. Thanks to Agility Recovery Solutions for allowing us to use and pass along this information.