Found this post over at blog.TotallyReady.com, and found that there is the age-old mixed news situation that seems to come up so often. Turns out, according to this informational post, that:
--The good news is: More people are preparing. In the post, a survey by Homeland Security is quoted, part of which reads:
"Although there is still a long way to go before all Americans are adequately prepared for emergencies, there have been indications of progress: From 2005 to 2008, the proportion of Americans who said they have taken any steps to prepare rose 13 points, from 45 percent to 58 percent. There were also several notable increases in key preparedness behaviors among American households nationwide:
Put together an emergency kit: 44 percent in 2004 to 53 percent in 2008.
Created a family emergency plan: 32 percent in 2004 to 40 percent in 2008."
---The bad news is: There is a rise in the number of things to prepare for. The author of the post has this to say about recent disaster statistics:
"From 1953 until 1995 disaster declaration in the United States remained fairly consistent. The greatest number occured in 1993, there were 58. Then in 1996 everything changed. In 1996 there were 159 declared disasters, 1997(47), 1998 (127), 1999 (110), 2000 (113), 2001 (100), 2002 (120), 2003 (123), 2004 (118), 2005 (155), 2006 (144), 2007 (136) and 2008 (143). As you can see disasters really have increased. These statistics do not even include the disasters caused by the economy or terrorism. "
I would highly recommend reading the post in its entirety. I'm just glad that the number of people preparing is on the rise--I always figure that we could all use all the good news that we can get. And hey, if there are more people prepared, hopefully there will be less devastating consequences even if there are more disasters coming along. In any case, the more we prepare, in terms of food storage and emergency supplies, the better off we'll be....
8 comments:
More is better, in this situation...
HermitJim--Have to agree with you there--in terms of more people being prepared, I always hope that there are people who are preparing that simply don't want anyone else to know that they are preparing, and that would mean even more are ready for emergencies. Here's hoping--thanks for your comment!
Definitely agree with more is better idea! We can't stop Mother Nature from displaying her fury but at least we can take steps to lessen the effect on our lives.
You know what they say - "If you fail to prepare then be prepared to fail."
Lorrie--I always think that if we store more of what we could use anyway for either ordinary or outdoor activities, we'll be in good shape whether an emergency hits or not. Or we may be able to share with others who do have an emergency...thanks for your comment!
Hey Marie, Thanks for your words of encouragment while I finished taxes and tried to cling to blogger land at the same time. They were appreciated!
It's good to know that there is this kind of report coming from our government unfortunately I wonder what it means when they print one like the one in the link below and mention on page 5 that they don't want us "stock piling" food. I'd really like a definition of that. Do they include my little families food storage?
http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/041609_extremism.pdf
Maybe some of your commentary traffic has some input to discuss on this.
HSJacobus--Thanks for the link! I had heard about this report, but hadn't known it was available online. Now I've read the "stockpiling" portion on page 5, which I hadn't heard about, and I don't know exactly what they're referring to. I hope that others reading might have a better idea, so maybe someone will comment...
Thing is, after your comment I went looking at ready.gov, (a government site) to see what their guidelines are for preparing for emergencies, and couldn't immediately find their guidelines for food. I do need to look harder to make sure what they have there because I haven't made a thorough search yet. It just seems to me that when I looked at it before (a long time ago now), that they suggested having food in storage, so that's why I don't know exactly what they mean when they say "stockpiling".
Thanks again for the link--I plan to read more of that document. I may use your comment as a post to see if people have any ideas. Glad you got everything done, and thanks again for the recipes!
That is interesting and worth doing some follow-up research on. We'll have to keep in touch on this issue and share notes.
HSJacobus--Great idea--the more information, the better... :)
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