National Preparedness Month: Get Ready Now, FEMA Says
"We don't know when the next disaster will strike. But the better prepared we are, the better we'll all do," says W. Craig Fugate, FEMA's new administrator, in his video promoting September's NPM.
National Preparedness Month will be here before you know it. But not if FEMA and its new administrator, W. Craig Fugate, have their way. A 54-second video featuring Fugate is part of the National Preparedness Month (which happens every September) outreach by FEMA using social media and the agency's Web site.
"Join the team. Become a part of the emergency management team. We don't know when the next disaster will strike. But the better prepared we are, the better we'll all do," Fugate says in the video, which is available at:
NPM is sponsored by FEMA's Ready Campaign in partnership with Citizen Corps and the Advertising Council. It intent is to encourage Americans to take simple steps to prepare for emergencies in their homes, businesses, and communities. Preparedness tips and information about how to create an emergency plan and stock an emergency response kit are available at www.ready.gov.
It's still possible to register an organization to be a 2009 NPM Coalition Member by visiting http://ready.adcouncil.org, as more than 1,600 organizations have done. Registering gives the organization access to the NPM Web site and its toolkit is for promoting emergency preparedness, plus an NPM calendar where members can post their own events and see what other organizations are doing.
"Our entire emergency management team has a role to play when it comes to preparing for and responding to the next disaster," Fugate said. "One of the most important parts of that team is the public. The more prepared the public is now, by getting an emergency response kit, making an emergency action plan, and getting a skill, like CPR, the stronger our emergency response team will be."