Why We Don’t Call It Disaster Preparedness

A lot of people refer to what we do as disaster preparedness. We always use the term emergency preparedness. Why that choice?

Disasters have victims Emergencies have responders.

A disaster (“a sudden event, such as an accident or a natural catastrophe, that causes great damage or loss of life”) is something that happens to you. An emergency (“a serious, unexpected, and often dangerous situation requiring immediate action”) is a situation you take action to respond to.

Our goal is to help people become awesome responders. So we use the word that signifies a demand for action rather than the one that implies helplessness. The word disaster comes from the Italian word disastro, which means “‘ill-starred event.” What is “in the stars” is out of our control. Our approach focuses on taking action on the things we can control in a crisis.

The word emergency comes from the Latin word emergere which means “arise, bring to light.” Emergencies bring to light our skills, knowledge, ability to work in teams, and our acceptance of our responsibility to move toward the crisis in order to solve it rather than to run away from it in fear. They test our competence and confidence.

We can develop competence in emergency response through well-designed training and practice. Confidence in our ability to respond well comes from knowing that we have the competence, advance planning, and tools and supplies to meet the challenge.

Do you know a business or organization ready to invest in its future through emergency preparedness training and planning? Forward them this article. Direct them to the free resources on our website. Resilience takes a community. The more businesses and organizations that are ready to respond well to emergencies, the faster the economy and infrastructure of an impacted community will recover.