Make It Through

The business side of preparedness:  Annie leading a Critical Infrastructure Congress panel in 2007 that included the head of the DHS private sector office as well as heads of coalitions for banking and finance, energy, public health, telecommunications and technology.

The City of Seattle has just replaced its "Three Days, Three Ways" with a much more appropriate citizen preparedness campaign called "Make It Through,"  with the subtitle "Plan to Be A Survivor."  It stresses first having a plan, then putting together an emergency kit, which I think is the proper order of things.  And the third clear action would be to help your neighbors.  In our neighborhood, as I've mentioned before, we have 17 leaders, each responsible for some of the  300+ homes in our neighborhood. We've also identified a first aid center, a shelter for those who need assistance, and a neighborhood operations center.

I've always worried that the "Three Days" national campaign implied that a disaster never lasts longer than three days.  We've seen that is not true, especially this past year, and that it's better to be prepared for longer.  The number I used in Advice From A Risk Detective is three to five days until many services we normally depend upon can be available.

Here's hoping this campaign gets lots of publicity because Seattle is once again leading the way from a preparedness perspective, rolling it out on social media tools like Facebook and Twitter as well.