Would You Know What to Do in a Disaster? Absolute Rights Shows You

There’s been a recent commercial where a family is sitting down to dinner and all of a sudden, cue disturbing music, they’re flipping heel over heel upside down in slow motion with terrified faces as the narrator asks in a forbidding voice whether those watching, unlike this unfortunate family, have prepared an emergency kit.

Now Absolute Rights says that a recent survey found that almost all of us living in America will not have enough food, water and possibly power to survive a disaster, like the tornadoes in Joplin Missouri, flooding from Hurricane Irene, wildfires in Texas, and the combination of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster in Fukoshima Japan, according to a press release at prweb.com.

But even such seemingly minor events as hurricanes, blizzards, food shortages or economic troubles can bring us to our knees, Absolute Rights reports.

The survey found that 91 percent of all Americans do not have survival kits, according to the press release, and that “there are more than 23 probable events that experts have identified that could knock out food supplies for 30 - 40 days.”

So the firm researched, analyzed and compiled the most important information available that people would need to survive at home, and included it in its new report, “40 Days and 40 Nights,” which helps the average person survive for 40 days without access to what we so completely take for granted will never run out.

As we all do, Absolute Rights found that “most American families rely on utility companies for power, heat and water, grocery stores for their food and supplies, gas stations for fuel, drug stores for medications, and first responders for emergency health care.”

A frightening statistic revealed by the survey showed that less than 10 percent of the people that were surveyed were prepared with enough food, water, information, and skills to survive at home in a disaster, “because the majority of people depend upon the federal government to help them survive in catastrophic events,” according to the press release.

All these systems people take for granted can be easily overwhelmed in a disaster situation, or even wiped out, according to the press release.

Absolute Rights suggests the first thing people must do is keep a minimum stock of food and water to last them at least a month. “The more prepared people are, the more resilient they will be after a disaster, and the less likely they will be to depend upon other entities for handouts, like the federal agencies, that may or may not be able to arrive on time,” the press release states.  The “40 Days and 40 Nights” survival preparedness report will teach people what they need to have on hand for the first 72 hours after a catastrophe because studies have shown that that’s how long it usually takes for help to arrive.

The report also covers security and safety as well as medical and trauma care as practiced in the field.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend that people also stay in touch through social media like Twitter, Facebook, and RSS. Another very important facet of emergency preparedness is “protecting the public from health threats,” reports the CDC, which provides resources at the state and local level to strengthen preparedness in the face of environmental or chemical attacks. 

Ready.gov, part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, suggests that families be informed, make a plan, build a survival kit, and get involved in their communities to see what help might be available in the event of a disaster, or they, too can help.

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