This is a response when asked; “What should I get to be prepared?” or “How do I start?”

Well actually if you ask me my response starts off; “It depends,……”

Well, here we are, almost a quarter of the way into 2022 and who had WWIII on their threat analysis list? I’m sure through the past 2-years you had supply chain issues, I mentioned those back in 2019, before COVID came along. If you live in an area impacted by hurricanes you should have supply chain issues on your threat analysis as you know certain things are in short supply pre-hurricane, like plywood for shoring up windows. If you live in areas impacted by winter storms you know milk, eggs and bread disappear off the shelves with the mere mention of a severe storm.

So, the question is, what have you done about these things over the past couple of years? Have you done a threat and hazard analysis, or updated yours? Have you adjusted your preparedness plans based on your experience and events?

Emergency planners in every community (should) conduct a threat and hazard identification and risk assessment (THIRA) every couple of years. A national THIRA is conducted I’ve written a couple of articles on area intelligence that touch on this topic a little, knowing what is in your area. But a THIRA does more, it uses a methodology to identify threat and hazards in the community, give them context, establish capabilities that would be needed to respond to the threats and hazards and determine gaps in those capabilities. It also identifies steps that can be taken to prevent and mitigate the threat and hazards.

In the context of family and personal preparedness we can use the same approach to determine what the answer to the ultimate question; the answer to that is “42” according to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams and the ultimate question is; “What is the meaning of life, the universe and everything?”

A THIRA can help us determine what we are, or should be, preparing for.

Now that I’m back from a 6 month deployment managing logistics for a state-wide operation I’m going to get back to writing the preparedness THIRA – a “how to” conduct your own assessment so you are preparing for what is more likely to happen in your area, so that you can identify your current capabilities, including knowledge, skills and supplies, and where you can and should improve.

In the meantime, update your family emergency plan, or do it if you haven’t! Work on your family communications plan – get your ham radio license now and practice. It doesn’t matter how young or old, we’ve seen people as young as 6 or 7 and as old at 65 or more obtain their license. All the resources you need are on this site.