Preparing for and possibly preventing disasters, both natural and man-made, is a vital task for everyone. Whether it be acts of God that you can only prepare for or acts of man that can actually be prevented by doing something as simple as regular maintenance, having plans in place for all contingencies is vital to making sure that at the end of the day, everybody comes out safe.
Plan for What's Likely
Planning for disasters that your area is more likely to succumb to allows for your jurisdiction to focus more time, effort and resources to sufficiently prepare for whatever nature (or man) may bring. If you live in Kansas, having a plan for getting your family or jurisdiction into shelters to protect them from an oncoming tornado is far more rational than planning for an earthquake or a tidal wave. Likewise, if you live in the mountains in an area that gets lots of rainfall, having plans of action for fighting forest fires caused by lightning strikes or having alternate routes for emergency vehicles when the main roads are cut off because of mudslides from torrential rains is much more logical than planning for tornadoes, which are rare in mountainous areas.
Multiple Contingencies
You always want to have more than one plan for any impending disaster. Many major cities have several plans of action for everything from city-wide evacuations to clear a street when a water main breaks. Even trailer parks have plans of action for local disasters like tornadoes and fire.
Emergency Services on Standby
It is always important to have emergency services on standby. What this means can differ depending on the size of the jurisdiction. In cities this usually means having some form of volunteer fire brigade or EMT service that can be called up if needed. In gated communities or trailer parks this can mean having a small contingent to fight house fires or respond to domestic issues and contain the situation until the proper authorities arrive. In a single household, this can be as simple as having the police or fire department on speed dial on the home phone.
Frequent Drills/Maintenance
Running emergency drills is a good way to ensure that when the time comes, everybody will act accordingly to best resolve the situation. Most schools and some businesses carry out fire and tornado drills so everybody knows where to go to be safe during disaster. City disaster management services run monthly drills to prepare for everything from earthquakes to enemy attacks. Further disaster prevention can be done by simply maintaining infrastructure, such as bridges or, around the house, simply doing things like reshingling the roof or replacing old pipes.
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