AWRM
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
FEMA Report Admits Preparedness Failures #170080
03/16/2019 10:00 AM
03/16/2019 10:00 AM
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 19,714
A 059 Btn 16 FF MSC
ConSigCor Online content OP
Senior Member
ConSigCor  Online Content OP
Senior Member
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 19,714
A 059 Btn 16 FF MSC
New FEMA Report Admits Preparedness Failures

The 2019 "Cultures of Preparedness" Report Says Past Efforts "Have Not Produced the Desired Results

by Patrick McCarthy March 12, 2019

Although prepping is often portrayed by the media as a fringe activity for tinfoil-hat-wearing weirdos, there are plenty of sources that will attest to its value. In fact, the U.S. government is extremely concerned with emergency preparedness. Take a quick look at history, and you’ll see that there’s no shortage of evidence to support the value of preparedness on a national scale, whether it’s related to hurricanes, wildfires, disease outbreaks, financial crises, or civil unrest. Our government, most specifically the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), is very clear about just how critical prepping can be prior to a disaster.

FEMA’s Failures

Unfortunately, a January 2019 FEMA report titled “Building Cultures of Preparedness” is also clear that past efforts to encourage preparedness have failed catastrophically. This 38-page PDF states:

“Attempts to enhance levels of preparedness among individual households, communities, and various organizations which lie outside the emergency management profession’s immediate sphere of control have shown little to no sign of improvement. Preparedness campaigns such as Ready.gov, America’s PrepareAthon, and National Preparedness Month, all aimed at individual households and communities, have not produced the desired results… Past efforts to apply top-down or one-size-fits-all solutions have too often ended in disappointment.”

The report continues to explain that despite FEMA’s efforts to promote preparedness, most of America remains underprepared for disasters.

“Research on the preparedness of individual households tells us that the dismal projections of personal preparedness recorded in survey after survey over the last two decades suggests probably even less preparedness than reported.” In 2014, a FEMA survey found that nearly half of Americans say preparedness is “not on their radar” at all, and only 14% claim that it’s an essential part of their lives.

Laura Olson, one of the lead authors of the report reinforced the magnitude of the problem in an interview with Emergency Management: “To say we’ve failed is putting it mildly. We really haven’t been able to achieve any of our goals for two decades at least, which is the amount of time we’ve been tracking this.”

The New Plan

So, FEMA admits their approach to prepping has failed, and wants to change tactics. This is where the new “Cultures of Preparedness” strategy comes in. The report explains this plan:

FEMA Cultures of Preparedness prepping survival shtf emergency disaster plan 2

“Recognizing the vast diversity of communities and individuals across this Nation, we suggest that the goal is not to build one monolithic, national Culture of Preparedness, but rather to encourage local engagement with preparedness projects that meet the needs and enhance the capacities of individual communities. The demands of distinctive and heterogeneous local environments mean that the Culture of Preparedness we desire will have to be built one community at a time. Locally specific solutions will have to be tailored to different cultural contexts by community members that understand their history and surroundings.”

Olson explains that this will involve FEMA trainers educating local leaders, who will then hopefully pass along this knowledge to their community in a way that feels natural and trustworthy rather than forced. FEMA hopes this approach will “reach people who never before imagined the government (at whatever level) cared about their safety and security.”

To learn more about FEMA’s new proposal and how it will be implemented, download the “Building Cultures of Preparedness” PDF document.


"The time for war has not yet come, but it will come and that soon, and when it does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." Gen. T.J. Jackson, March 1861
Re: FEMA Report Admits Preparedness Failures [Re: ConSigCor] #170081
03/16/2019 12:24 PM
03/16/2019 12:24 PM
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 23,871
Tulsa
airforce Online content
Administrator
airforce  Online Content
Administrator
Senior Member
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 23,871
Tulsa
Originally Posted by ConSigCor
... “Research on the preparedness of individual households tells us that the dismal projections of personal preparedness recorded in survey after survey over the last two decades suggests probably even less preparedness than reported.” In 2014, a FEMA survey found that nearly half of Americans say preparedness is “not on their radar” at all, and only 14% claim that it’s an essential part of their lives....


FEMA has the same problem we do. Everyone I talk to agrees that preparedness is a good idea. And they all say that someday they'll get around to doing it.

I try to tell people to start small. The next time they need flashlight batteries, buy the large econ0my pack and store the extra ones away. Need a can of beef stew? But two instead. You're not spending a whole lot more, and you're getting started on your preparedness program.

How many of them are actually doing that? I don't know, but I suspect I'm not doing much better than FEMA is.

Onward and upward,
airforce


Moderated by  airforce, ConSigCor 

.
©>
©All information posted on this site is the private property of the individual author and AWRM.net and may not be reproduced without permission. © 2001-2020 AWRM.net All Rights Reserved.
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.6.1.1