September is a special month in the emergency management/preparedness world. It’s National Preparedness Month, a chance to help your communities take steps to prepare. We’ve learned that preparedness saves lives, time and money.
Lives: When people have first-aid training, they may be able to prevent infection and prevent emergency situations from getting worse. When they know to drop, cover and hold on in an earthquake, they increase their chances of survival.
Time: Having preparedness under your belt means you can take care of yourself and then move on to helping others. First responders, also, can then take care of just those with the most serious needs. Your recovery is faster and so is your neighborhood’s.
Money: Rather than having to pay lots of money during disaster recovery, it’s better to spend it on preparedness and mitigation. We find that every dollar spent in mitigation saves four in recovery.
Here’s the theme for this year’s National Preparedness Month:
The Utah Division of Emergency Management has compiled a list of useful links where you can get messaging, including, sample tweets, links and graphics, to promote preparedness in your communities. Check it out here. Happy preparing!
Utah PIO Association 