December 20, 2007

Emergency preparedness office urges New Year's resolution

This New Year's Eve, nearly 50 percent of Americans will make at least one resolution as they look toward the New Year. Today, Purdue's Emergency Preparedness Office is encouraging all faculty, staff and students to make a resolution that is both important and easy to keep: preparing for emergencies. 

In a recent national survey conducted by the Ad Council, 91 percent of Americans agreed that taking some simple steps to prepare could help protect themselves and their families in the event of an emergency.  However, only 54 percent had taken at least one of the three steps recommended by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Ready Campaign, including getting an emergency supply kit, making a family emergency plan, and being informed about the different types of emergencies that could occur and their appropriate responses.

Purdue's Emergency Preparedness Office encourages you to visit ready.gov or call (800) BE-READY to learn how to prepare your families, homes and businesses for all types of emergencies, including natural and human-caused disasters.

Free materials, including family emergency plan templates are available through these resources. The materials will provide you with tools to make a New Year's resolution that will bring you and your loved ones peace of mind. 

If you wish to take a more active role in your community's preparedness, get involved by joining or starting a Citizen Corps Council near you.  Citizen Corps brings community and government leaders together to coordinate the involvement of community members and non-governmental resources in emergency preparedness, planning, mitigation, response, and recovery.  Visit citizencorps.gov for more information.

We also recommend a periodic review of the preparedness information, plans, and procedures that are located on Purdue's Emergency Preparedness Web site:  http://www.purdue.edu/emergency_preparedness/.  

If you have questions, contact the Emergency Preparedness office at 49-40446 or rdwright@purdue.edu.