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The "Introduction" from Disaster Prep 101 explains the focus, depth, breadth, and detail of the book:
Chernobyl, Bhopal, Three Mile Island, Hurricane Andrew, California earthquakes, Mississippi flooding, Texas tornadoes, western wildfires, northern blizzards, southern drought, rolling blackouts, Columbine, Mad Cow, West Nile, September 11th, Anthrax, DC snipers, SARS, asteroids, and...”Lions and tigers and bears?” It’s no fun picking up a new book and becoming depressed after the first paragraph, is it?
These types of emergencies and disasters face us in the news every day, and once in a while they face us in our own backyards. Nature hits us from one direction and man from another, whether by intentional terrorist attack, or through negligence or accident. Global warming will ensure increased weather disasters, and the number and severity of terrorist attacks and other manmade misfortunes have increased dramatically over the years and will continue to do so.
Much has been done over the past couple of decades to improve the safety of the general public. Early warning systems for weather have been greatly enhanced, technology has improved the reactions and capabilities of our first responders, and government has increased the funding for agencies involved in counter-terrorism, and in both disaster management and post-disaster relief and rebuilding.
However, there is still vast room for improvement in those areas, and especially in the area of personal and family emergency preparedness. There is a big difference between what is currently taught and what can actually be done. The same holds true for contributions citizens can make through organized volunteer groups. These are the reasons this book is so large; we’ve got a lot of catching up to do!
You’re probably asking, “Aren’t there already a lot of books or lists that deal with emergency preparedness?” By name, yes. Numerous books and websites have “emergency supply” checklists and other bits and pieces, but none are as comprehensive, focused, detailed, or as training oriented as they should be. At best they’ll have you sitting there all by yourself with the wrong equipment wondering what to do in the middle of an emergency that caught you completely by surprise, and then leave you clueless as to what to afterward. There’s much more to readiness than “duct tape and plastic sheeting!”
The time has come for awareness and preparedness to become a part of our daily life. Simple checklists and “how-to” pamphlets won’t provide us the kind of education we need to improve our individual abilities or make the subtle lifestyle alterations necessary for adapting to the changes already thrust on our world.
This book is designed to help prepare you for the worst emergencies you may encounter. We’re going to cover terrorist attacks to tornadoes, and everything in between, and do everything we can to guide you through all aspects of knowledge, training, and equipment, to make sure you’ve achieved the highest level of safety possible. We’ll remind you here that we firmly believe in “planning without panic.” Though the worst case scenario is a large-scale terrorist attack, the truth of the matter is that you’re statistically more likely to experience a natural disaster. The good news is that if you’re fully prepared for one, you’re prepared for the other.
We’ve also written this book to help our brave and dedicated first responders. The more you know, and the more capable you are of looking out for you and yours, the less of a burden you’ll be to emergency workers, and the more you’ll free them up to help others. The final section of the book will outline ways you can be part of a volunteer group and the many ways a group can further this goal.
It’s for you, and it’s for everyone who realizes that the ultimate responsibility for their own safety and protection rests squarely on their own shoulders.
This book is for the individual all the way through the organized group of volunteers. It’s for the young homemakers, the elderly retired couple, the single parent, the wealthy professional, the financially overextended family. It’s for the members of our country’s armed forces and for all our civilian first responders who have to make sure the family they leave at home while they perform their duties is well protected. It’s for everyone who wants to be far safer in an increasingly dangerous world, and it’s for everyone who understands that security, like charity, begins at home.
We’re giving you a detailed map, a guide, a directory, or a training course if you will, to aid you in your own education and preparation. We’ll help you along every step of the way to determine what kinds of emergencies you may face, how prepared you already are to meet their unique challenges, and how to tailor your future preparations based on your particular set of circumstances.
What we won’t do is sell you a book with a lot of fluff, reprints of generic instruction, formatting with lots of blank space, pages of unnecessary pictures and graphics, or other useless information that does nothing but fill pages and make an otherwise empty book look thick and impressive on a bookstore shelf. There are too many of those out there now. We also won’t give you only one set of emergency instructions or list of equipment and tell you “one size fits all.” It doesn’t work that way.
What we will do is help you find the specific kinds of information, training, and equipment that will best suit your particular needs. We’ll help you do it as economically as possible, and we’ll help steer you away from things you really don’t need. Where other works are vague, ours focuses on specifics. The difference is in the detail, and we’re going to give you the detail that makes all the difference.
Since we’ve written this book a little differently than most, let’s look at how to get the most out of it.
You’ll notice throughout the book there will be numerous sources of background information, courses to take, books to read, suggestions to consider, checklists to complete, and data forms to fill out. In the “Appendix” we’ve given you a blank three-month calendar to organize all your suggested training and reading, completion of pertinent checklists, accomplishment of suggested tasks, acquisition of necessary equipment, and the attainment of all suggested goals. This book is set for action. Your action!
Since what you have is a training manual, you should use it like one. Treat this as if it were a second-hand book you got for a course in school. Read it, reread it, study it, write in it, check off the websites you’ve visited, dog-ear the pages, use the checklists, fill in the blanks, highlight lines and sections, fill out the forms, use the coupons, and make this book yours!
Just as with any training manual or program, we’ve arranged our sections in a logical progression to take you from a beginning to a desirable goal. Please keep in mind that though you feel one particular section may apply to you far more than another, there is extremely useful information interlaced in each, so be sure to read and study everything. Emergency situations are always different, and each is fluid and dynamic with a life of its own. You need as much training and practice as possible so you can react quickly and properly as situations within a disaster unfold.
The first section following this “Introduction” section, is the “Foundation” which covers the “basic training” you’ll need when facing an emergency. The “Foundation” section sets the stage by helping you get the training and information you may need, reviewing basic types of emergencies, and helping you with the most important part of all, and that is developing a “readiness” or “self-reliant” mindset.
Next we’ll provide you some specific “Reaction” material. Here you’ll learn what to do in advance, and as a primary response, to a variety of incidents and situations. These immediate reactions are intended to save your life so you can proceed with either an “Evacuation” or an “Isolation.”
“Evacuation” covers all the subtle details of planning, procedure, and equipment to get you rapidly away from point A and safely to a pre-planned point B, within a variety of scenarios. As you’ll learn in this section, evacuation means worlds more than “get out of the house.”
“Isolation” (as from a quarantine after a biological attack) comes next. We’ll help you not only survive an extended isolation, but add some level of comfort as well. Pay attention to both the “Evacuation” and “Isolation” sections as your response to an emergency may be a combination of the two.
Following these is the “Cooperation” section. We’ve called it that as it covers working with others. This is the most important section of all, in our opinion, as it goes into great detail on coordinating your efforts with others for the purposes of mutual safety, or to help your fellow citizens. “Cooperation” covers everything from organizing a simple neighborhood watch, to establishing a networked civilian volunteer group liaisoned with your local government entities to assist during or after an emergency.
Wrapping up the book is the “Appendix.” There you’ll find, among other things, the data forms you’ll be asked to fill out in the course of this book. The enclosed CDs contain wordprocessor and/or spreadsheet files for the data forms (as you may need several copies, or prefer to fill them out on-screen) and an interactive collection of Internet links. The CDs also contain more than 400 instructional manuals!
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