Preparedness is a continuous cycle of planning, organizing, training, equipping, exercising, evaluating, and taking actions to ensure readiness, sustainability, and is the cornerstone of resiliency.  This phase includes both the Prevention and Protection Mission Areas of emergency management.

 Go to https://www.ready.gov for more information on how to be prepared.

Prevent, avoid or stop and imminent, threatened or actual act of terrorism.  This is accomplished by screening, detection, and surveillance of suspected or potential terror actors or criminals who wish to incite panic among communities, states, and nations.

If you see something suspicious take actions.

https://www.dhs.gov/see-something-say-something/reporting/alabama

Protect our citizens, residents, visitors, and assets against identified threats and hazards to protect the valued interests, aspirations, and way of life.  If prevention is not possible or is not an option then planning for protection from a threat or hazard is the ONLY option.

https://www.ready.gov/plan

https://www.ready.gov/kit

There are many others links available from ready.gov.

As in the Protection Mission, mitigation is a process of putting into place capabilities which will reduce the impacts of the threats and hazards faced by our communities.  This may be in the form of community storm shelters, building codes or recommendations designed to increase the survivability of housing and other structures, putting barrier up to prevent entry into areas of importance, among others.

Reduce the loss of life and property by lessening impacts of future disasters by taking specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time sensitive strategic steps toward overall protection.  At the individual level, a mitigation step to lessen impacts of threats and hazards is to take steps to be prepared.  

https://www.ready.gov/sites/default/files/2021-06/ready_12-ways-to-prepare_postcard.pdf

Provide capabilities to respond quickly, safely, and efficiently to save lives, protect property, the environment, and meet human needs to prevent suffering in the aftermath of a catastrophic incident.  Response is a reaction to impacts caused by disasters or emergencies with three key principles; save lives, reduce economic losses, and alleviate suffering.

Provide capabilities to respond quickly, safely, and efficiently to save lives, protect property, the environment, and meet human needs to prevent suffering in the aftermath of a catastrophic incident.  Individuals can help during response by learning techniques to build resiliency in their homes, neighborhoods, communities, churches, businesses, etc.

https://www.ready.gov/cert

For CERT Training call our office at 

256-845-8569

https://community.fema.gov/PreparednessCommunity/s/open-training?language=en_US

Free online training on how to prepare your organization for threats and hazards for other help or recommendations call our office.

Provide strategic, calculated, effective recovery with a focus on timely restoration, strengthening, and revitalization of infrastructure, housing, sustain the economy, health and well-being, social and cultural, historical and environmental fabrics of our communities which have been catastrophically impacted by disaster.  This phase and mission of emergency management is the longest and requires more resources than any other phase or mission.  It begins immediately after all threats to human life have passed.  The goal is to bring the communities impacted by disaster back to a state of normalcy.  This phase combines the efforts of all other phases to create a more robust, sustainable, resilient community to decrease the impacts of similar events in the future.

Provide strategic, calculated, effective recovery with a focus on timely restoration, strengthening, revitalization of infrastructure, housing, sustain the economy, health and well-being, social and cultural, historical and environmental fabric of our communities which have been catastrophically impacted by disaster. 

 How can individual help during recovery?  Individuals who take steps to be prepared, have appropriate insurances on their property, have mitigation measures in place to protect life and property, and are trained to response to disaster are much more likely to easily bounce back from disaster impacts and suffer much less than those who do not or cannot take these preparedness steps.  Those who take steps to ensure they are prepared for disasters are more than twice as likely to be able to help their neighbors and community recover quicker.