Episode Details
Back to EpisodesPreparedness: How Long Should I Be Ready for? 72Hrs, 14 Days, 2 Years?
Description
This week we tackle the never ending debate on how much time should I be preparing to be on my own for? Society will recommend 72 hours, but most in the community know that for significant disasters, that is woefully inadequate. So how long? This episode tackles the rationale behind that decision and walks a pathway for you to follow to answer that question for yourself, considering your circumstances, hazards, risk tolerance, risk perception, self efficacy and what you perceive to be your need to evacuate. I always recommend starting with 14 days, based upon thousands of pages of literature and government reports, in all developed and developing nations with international response, every community was reached by some form of response agency within 14 days of the event onset. That should not be your end point, but statistically, that serves as a start point, from where you can move that goalpost as you see fit. I emphasize that emergency preparedness is essentially nominal cost. There are no economic barriers to being prepared. Cognitive, yes, but economic, no. So sit back and enjoy, comments welcome
jeff@preparednesslabs.ca