The importance of disaster preparedness has never been more evident. Can you keep your family safe if a natural disaster strikes?
Mother Nature can provide us with some spectacular things: a gentle rainstorm to lull us to sleep at night, a brilliant sunrise stretching its way across the horizon, a rainbow shimmering in the sky. But her presence in our lives in not always benevolent. She can hit us, seemingly out of the clear blue sky, with life-changing – and in some cases, life-ending – disasters. Her force can be as devastating as it is beautiful when she sweeps violently through, leaving mass destruction and chaos in her wake. Although you can’t fight Mother Nature, you can take precautions so that you’ll be more prepared in the event that one of her disastrous “tantrums” hits close to home
Know Your Risks
Before you can adequately prepare for a disaster, you need to know what type of occurrence your family is most at risk for. After all, there’s no sense in getting ready for something that is highly unlikely to happen in your area. The government provides a valuable Internet resource with their Multi-Hazard Mapping Initiative, or MMI, site (you’ll find a direct link below this article). On this site, you can view detailed maps of your state and see your level of risk for each type of natural disaster; from landslides to windstorms to volcanoes, everything is covered. Once you know your risks, you can start planning more specifically for them.