National Preparedness Month 2023

September is National Preparedness Month. Each year National Preparedness Month is recognized to promote family and community disaster and emergency planning. Each year FEMA puts out a themed campaign during National Preparedness Month to bring attention to the need to prepare for potential disasters. This year’s campaign is called “Preparing for Older Adults“.

Older adults may have specific needs after a disaster. This is especially true if they are living alone, are low-income, have a disability, or live in rural areas. Emergency managers should take this growing segment of the population when planning for disaster recovery. FEMA has a specific page for Older Adults on its website dedicated to help emergency managers with their preparation activities.

The Ready.gov website has a number of resources to help your community conduct disaster and emergency planning. A variety of handouts, guides, public service announcements, and a link to the FEMA app are all available through the website. 

FEMA also has a YouTube site with a wide array of videos that your community can watch and learn from. One such video is on developing and facilitating tabletop exercises. No, this is not a community-based version of Dungeons and Dragons. But exercises that take into account different scenarios and helps your community work through how to respond to them.

Each year, Rural Resurrection typically provides posts this month about disaster preparedness. Last year, we discussed the importance of Tabletop Exercises in preparing for disasters.