Utah is no stranger to emergencies. Recent wildfires and flooding have shown us how quickly a disaster can disrupt a community. Severe winter storms and power outages bring their own challenges. But the disaster Utah has long known it must prepare for — a major earthquake along the Wasatch Front — could affect hundreds of thousands of us at once.
September is National Preparedness Month, making this an ideal time for Utahns to ask a simple question: If a major emergency happened tomorrow, how prepared would my family, neighborhood and community really be?
Government agencies across the state spend considerable time planning for emergencies. But there is an important distinction between having an emergency plan and having a prepared population.
For many Utahns, the first people available to help may not be professional responders. They could be family members, neighbors, co-workers, church members and trained volunteers.
The problem is not a lack of information. The challenge is turning information into action. A preparedness website like Ready.gov is a great resource, but it is not the same thing as having a prepared neighborhood. Owning emergency supplies is not the same as knowing how to use them. Having an emergency plan sitting in a binder on a shelf is not as good as a community who practices that plan together.
A prepared Utah begins with prepared Utahns — and the time to prepare, connect and practice is before a disaster happens.
Families should know how they will communicate when cellular networks are overloaded. Neighborhoods should know who may need assistance. Communities should understand evacuation procedures, and volunteers should know how they fit into the larger emergency response structure.
Most importantly, we need to practice. Families should practice communication and get-back-home scenarios. Church congregations should practice communication and check-ins. CERT teams should practice call-out drills, and communities should practice evacuation, sheltering and communication drills.
Emergency exercises reveal issues that written plans cannot. They show where communications fail, where responsibilities are unclear, and where government, faith-based and volunteer organizations need better coordination.
The government cannot simply assume that churches will take care of their members, and residents should not assume their church or city will care for them. Preparedness begins with individuals and families and expands outward — to neighbors, congregations, volunteer organizations and municipalities.
Technology can help. Modern disaster assessment and communications tools can provide volunteers, CERT teams, faith organizations and emergency managers a way to collect and consolidate information from the field into a common operating picture of the disaster. The goal isn’t technology for technology’s sake. It is getting accurate information to decision-makers quickly enough to save lives.
The goal at Utah Preparedness Network is not to replace government emergency management, CERT, Utah VOAD, churches or other preparedness organizations. It is to help connect them all together — and to help connect them to you.
Preparedness works best as a network. Government provides professional emergency management and public safety. CERT programs train residents to help their communities. VOAD organizations bring specialized disaster-response capabilities. Faith organizations reach deeply into neighborhoods, and nonprofits and businesses contribute additional resources and expertise. Utahns are the foundation.
Imagine Utah communities regularly practicing together: residents checking on neighbors, CERT teams assessing damage, churches activating communication networks, amateur radio operators testing backup communications and emergency managers receiving real-time information from the community.
What Utah needs now is to connect all the pieces — and practice together. And then practice some more. Because preparedness isn’t something government does for us. It is something we must all do together.
National Preparedness Month is a good time to look at our training and supplies and review our family emergency plans. Find your city’s plan and ask them to drill and practice. But let’s go further. Let’s connect with our neighbors, learn how our communities will respond and participate in preparedness exercises when we have the opportunity.
A prepared Utah begins with prepared Utahns — and the time to prepare, connect and practice is before a disaster happens. With a little effort, we can become one of the most prepared states in America.