No doubt you have seen the current threat level crawling across the ticker on numerous news and business channels. Chances are you even heard the advisory to get duct tape and plastic sheeting. Sometimes the level goes up and sometimes it drops back while life seems to continue as it was. Everyone makes a big deal out of the current status but you will not hear much about how you should prepare. And face it, if the threat level was raised to Severe and an attack was closing in on us how do you think 300,000,000 citizens are going to prepare? The result is simple: mass panic. Just try it with duct tape and plastic - common, readily available commodities. Now think about real stuff like: gas, food staples, medical supplies, cash and antibiotics.

So we know that approach will not work. A quick trip to the Department of Homeland Security web site should yield us average citizens with a comprehensive description of what to do for each defined threat level. The following table summarizes their description of what to do:

"The Homeland Security Advisory System was designed to provide a national framework and comprehensive means to disseminate information regarding the risk of terrorist acts to federal, state, and local authorities and to the American people. This system provides warnings in the form of a set of graduated 'threat conditions' that increase as the risk of the threat increases. At each threat condition, government entities and the private sector, including businesses and schools, would implement a corresponding set of 'protective measures' to further reduce vulnerability or increase response capability during a period of heightened alert."

Who's first? Federal government.

Who's second? State government

Who's third? Local authorities

Who's last? You.

We have our answer. The Department of Homeland Security is not PRIMARILY for you, the individual United States citizen. Surprise.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing? As with most things in life the answer is: "Both."

Bad news first. This is bad because there are 300,000,000 citizens in desperate need of a cohesive, well-formed, personal disaster and contingency plan. Every household in the USA should have one of these, refine it and test it on a regular basis. Getting on television and telling folks to do something at the last minute is only going to provoke panic, disgust, distrust, general resignation and hopelessness. People need real resources and a clear process to help them get the job done.

Welcome to Tornado Alley (shameless plug).

Now the good news. Let's consider the enormity of the task before our leaders. They are charged with protecting:

• 300,000,000 people;
• a 10-12 TRILLION dollar economy;
• a huge and diverse land mass;
• a constitutional republic (we are NOT a democracy) with the attendant individual freedoms;
• against any or all of the following: individual terrorists, terrorist organizations, rouge states, mid-size national sponsors, the big bad nations, pretenders and people who envy/hate us; and
• against chemical, biologic, nuclear, infrastructure attacks

Think about the biggest project you've ever managed and you begin to sense the scale of what we are asking them to do. National defense is a very, very difficult business to be in. Think of the hundreds of individual agencies that all need to work in unison to make sure the threats are seen, analyzed, communicated and neutralized. And a threat can be as small as one person or as big as another nation. All of a sudden their priorities start to make some sense in light of their mission. Which brings us to the other piece of good news: The government is NOT helping us with our personal disaster planning (to any great extent)!

Simply put - It is YOUR job and YOUR responsibility to take care of YOUR family. Let Homeland Security protect our nation, if they can. You need to plan and protect your family. The sooner the better. The last thing your family needs is another program foisted upon you in a one size fits all cookie cutter approach. If we as a nation are individually prepared then whatever adversity comes our way will not destroy us. It also might make our enemies (foreign and domestic) think twice, or even three times before engaging us. A fully prepared citizenry is a formidable opponent indeed!

Tornado Alley is dedicated to helping every family in the USA develop a sensible and workable disaster plan. Isn't it time to start?

• U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security - www.dhs.gov
• White House - www.whitehouse.gov
• FEMA - www.fema.gov

Documents Referenced:

• FEMA "Are You Ready? A Guide to Citizen Preparedness" This document is in pdf format (1.9Mb) and approx. 110 pages in length.