RAF Alconbury, UK -- One of the important tasks as an emergency manager is to prepare the base for any hazard that could occur. We harp on the importance during CBRN Defense Survival Skills, Base Emergency Preparedness Orientation and even during our National Preparedness Month and yet people still head straight to the frozen food section before a hurricane/typhoon. We give people the information on how to survive the disaster but do we give enough information on how their actions also assist in their recovery?
One of the issues is that the old adage states being prepared is for a matter of survival only and not recovery. Preparedness should begin to be looked at as the ability to recover faster not just survive the incident. Looking at it as a chemical reaction (A), Disaster (B) and Community (C) Recovery. How much (A) and (B) react depends on how quickly we get to (C). A simple way to speed up the reaction is to add a catalyst, preparedness. Preparedness is the catalyst that allows households, communities, and organizations to reach their recovered state quicker and more efficiently. Continuing to allow the assumption that preparedness is simply a matter of surviving the initial disaster is like adding your chemicals together, stirring it up, and just waiting to see what happens.