Benjamin Franklin once said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” No matter what activities dominate your daily life, if you don’t take the time to plan appropriately, you run the risk of failing when it is most important. Planning is key to our philosophy. It is the one step that will allow us to rapidly and effectively respond to emergent situations regardless of the event, or response time.
While there is no single formula for planning, there is a toolset that you can apply to most, if not all situations. First, identify the problem. Because no two problems are the same, this is a more complex task than most people imagine. For example, the way we respond to a natural event, such as a hurricane, snowstorm, or even an earthquake, is far different than the way we respond to an event of civil unrest or a manmade crises. While some of the planning characteristics will be the same, most will be event driven and not something you can respond to “on the fly.” Regardless of the event, planning, and making sure all members of your family understand the plan and how it works, is critical.
Lets take a moment and categorize some of the more predictable events, ones we can plan around and prepare for.
Natural events are defined as any event that occurs naturally, are predictable to some extent, are localized in nature, and are normally not impacted by human activity. The most common are weather events like hurricanes, tornados, blizzards or extreme snowfall, uncontrolled flooding, windstorms (derechos), and even extended periods of heat or cold. While these impact us most frequently, other natural events, ranging from earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis, as we experienced in 2023, naturally occurring wildfires also require some level of advanced planning.
Man-caused events fall into two categories. The first takes on the form of natural events but is the direct result of human interaction with nature, the environment, or human carelessness. Such events include wildfires resulting from the accidental or purposeful actions of humans, and flooding resulting from the failure or purposefully release of water from manmade dikes, levees, or dams,
The second type of man-caused event includes civil unrest, infrastructure and service disruptions, and even war. While civil unrest is normally localized, its ability to impact large areas cannot be understated. Such events include riots and demonstrations that destroy property or prevent people from moving from point to point. These events tend to escalate rapidly and impact the ability of individuals to carry out daily tasks. Disruptions to infrastructure, utilities, and services will impact individuals and families on a larger scale. While the loss of power and water is normally short-lived, we have seen instances where communities were without such services for weeks or even months. Planning must also include the loss of services. Interruptions in delivery services to grocery stores and pharmacies and access to banks and medical services can create chaos. War is the one event that is most difficult to plan and prepare for. Its impact can be massive, disrupting services across regions, states, and even the entire nation. We will address this category in a separate section of the website.
While we cannot tell you everything you will need to consider for your specific situation, can walk you through the general planning process for each type of crisis and help guide you through the steps you will need to personalize the plan for your specific needs.
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