Time for a Culture of Preparedness

Throughout Louisiana, retired Lieutenant General Russel Honore is using his public recognition from Hurricane Katrina to push for a culture of preparedness. Along with many other disaster-related professionals, Honore is trumpeting the need for ongoing readiness because many people and businesses in the state still do not make preparedness an ongoing priority.

Since 1953, Louisiana has experienced 55 federally declared disasters or emergencies. That number includes the expected hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods, but it also includes winter and ice storms. Since 1994, five winter weather storms in the state have received federal disaster status.

Louisiana is not alone in disaster regularity. One need only look at FEMA's website to see that federally-declared disasters occur regularly across the country. In 2008, the U.S. experienced 74 major disasters or emergencies across 33 states, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. In fact, Texas, California, Florida, Oklahoma, and New York rank above Louisiana in total number of disasters since 1953. (For comparison's sake, the states with the fewest disasters were Wyoming, Utah, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia, all with 7 in the same time period.)

News reports also drive home the point that devastating events occur on a regular basis. At the time of this writing, wildfires rage across southern California, terrorist groups are calling for more attacks against the US, and Louisiana and Texas continue the clean-up process after two hurricanes.

The trend of disaster regularity is clear. The numbers above reflect only those events that reach federal levels of recognition and do not include smaller, local events, which can be just as devastating to a family or business. In short, ignoring preparedness is simply a perilous and risky way to go through life.