FEMA Says Get Ready with the ‘Are You Ready” Guide to Citizen Preparedness

The Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has announced their updated, in-depth guide to citizen preparedness, Are You Ready? is available to individuals, families and community preparedness groups who are looking for a comprehensive source of what to do when disaster strikes.

The Are You Ready? guide provides a step-by-step approach to disaster preparedness by walking the reader through how to get informed about local emergency plans, how to identify hazards that affect their area and instructing them on how to develop and maintain an emergency communications plan and building a disaster supplies kit.

Other guide topics include evacuation, emergency public shelters, animals in disaster and information specific to people with disabilities. The preparedness facts are based on the most reliable hazard awareness and emergency education information including advances in scientific knowledge, the most accurate technical language and the latest physical research on what happens in disasters.

“Being prepared for disasters is everyone’s responsibility, and the Are You Ready? Guide can be a key tool to eenable families to protect themselves against all hazards,” said Michael Brown, Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response.

To broaden the usage of the Are You Ready? materials, a facilitator guide is available for those interested in delivering the disaster preparedness content in a classroom or small group setting. The facilitator guide includes training modules for adults and older and younger children and contains a CD ROM tool-kit with resources such as customizable slides and hazard specific fact sheets. The Are You Ready? guide can also be used as a study manual guide with credit awarded for successful completion and a 75 per cent score on a final exam.

Questions about the exam should be directed to www.training.fema.gov/emiweb/is or by calling 800-238-3358. College credit for the course is also being offered through Frederick Community College, Frederick, Maryland.

The 200 plus-page Are You Ready? guide is FEMA’s premier, preparedness resource catalog and is available from the FEMA Web site in both English and Spanish. Log on to www.fema.gov for a free copy. Or receive an English-only copy by mail from FEMA’s Publications Warehouse at 1-800-480-2520.

Four preparedness booklets supplement the guide’s information. They cover citizen preparedness topics: 1) Preparing for Disaster; 2) Food and Water in an Emergency; 3) Preparing for Disaster for People with Disabilities and other Special Needs; and 4) Helping Children Cope with Disaster. Organizations are urged to use the Web site’s instructions for printing large quantities of the guide, even customizing the covers with organization seals or logos.

Are You Ready? is just one of many resources Homeland Security provides American citizens to help them be prepared against all types of hazards. Homeland Security’s Ready campaign seeks to help America be better prepared for even unlikely emergency scenarios.

Information on how the public can be ready in case of a national emergency, including a possible terrorism attack involving biological, chemical or radiological weapons, can be found by logging on to www.ready.gov or by calling 800-BE-READY for printed information.