For the most part communities can take care of immediate needs at the outset of an emergency if properly prepared for it. When a disaster occurs communities that have planned for them can react quicker and help more people in a short amount of time.
FEMA helps but they are not able to mobilize and be boots on the ground helping people within minutes, like a well trained community could be. Programs like the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) when implemented well can put hundreds if not thousands of trained citizens in action to help with the immediate response needed to not only help themselves and their neighbors minutes after an incident.
It’s common sense that reaction time is important. As a company we talk about educating and creating self reliant clients that can take care of themselves thus not becoming a burden on their neighbors, communities, or others during an emergency. The same holds true with community based emergency management. While not all communities have the budget to have a dedicated emergency manager, they do have the ability to tap into FEMA, Red Cross, Church based groups, Salvation Army and many more non-profits to get the type of help and training that would benefit their community in the face of a disaster.
Of course the point of doing this would be to be create a more resilient community and save more lives.
Want to help out? You can find your local CERT Program by clicking this link.