Hannah, Gustav, Ike, Chicken Little, and The Boy Who Cried ‘Wolf’

We’re mid-way through the 5th Annual National Preparedness month and the 2008 Hurricane Season is starting to reach maturity. Living in South Florida puts you in a heightened sense of awareness around storm season. So far this year we have been very fortunate; but I have been following the news around the last few named storms and just this morning on the news they were saying that 20,000 people did not evacuate Galveston, TX even though the language of the evacuation order said, ‘Leave or face certain death.’

I also watched reports of Ike making landfall in Texas and a rain drenched reporter was showing a street full of businesses and pointing out that only about 1 in 15 had boarded up their windows.

It’s that fundamental human impulse that says, ‘I’ll play the odds’ or ‘it won’t happen to ME’ that leads some people to defy these types of warnings and shirk common sense preparation. Unfortunately,  it happens to people just like YOU and the annoyance of something as mundane as boarding up some windows can mean the difference between a storm being an inconvenience and a catastrophe. Despite considerable damage caused by this year’s storms, it is cause for some concern that after the failures of response to Katrina Emergency Management agencies are gun-shy and have overstated the character of both Ike and Gustav with language like, ‘storm of the century’ and ‘certain death.’ The concern is that the people in the path of the next storm may not take the warnings seriously.

In August the National Hurricane Center had updated their 2008 forecast and reported:

The outlook calls for a 67% chance for each of the following seasonal ranges: 14-18 Named Storms, 7-10 Hurricanes, and 3-6 Major Hurricanes. All of these ranges are above the long-term averages of 11 named storms, six hurricanes, and two major hurricanes.

So even if you’re not in a hurricane prone area, get involved in National Preparedness Month and take some fundamental precautions to safeguard your family, your home, your business…

Here is the latest word from the Ready Campaign:

Dear preparedness partners:

As we begin National Preparedness Month, Americans are being reminded of how quick and powerful emergencies can be as residents along the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts have been dealing with Hurricanes Gustav, Hannah, and Ike. All of these have produced very serious situations for inland residents.

The Ready Campaign is pleased to share with you that we have more than 3,000 coalition members joining us this month in promoting emergency preparedness.  In addition, the Ready Campaign has launched a blog on its web site for National Preparedness Month.  During the month, the campaign will be featuring guest bloggers who are writing about their own personal preparedness experiences.  We hope you will take the time to visit the blog and share your thoughts with us.  To visit the blog, click here http://www.ready.gov/journal/journal.html.

Also, the campaign wants to highlight what you’re doing on the local level.  Send us pictures and write-ups of your efforts and we will post them on our website. To send them in, email npm@dhs.gov

Thank you for your efforts, together we will make a difference.

The Ready Campaign

Our contribution as a Coalition Member of the Ready Campaign is a free, listen-on-demand teleseminar about Business Continuity and Disaster Preparedness called Riding the Storm Out.