FEMA's Are You Ready Preparedness Guide Available

WASHINGTON DC - With the start of the 2005 hurricane season just weeks away, heavy winter snow packs in the west forecasting late spring flooding and a tornado season that seems to know no boundaries, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has, since November, distributed nearly 100,000 copies of the updated Are You Ready? An In-depth Guide to Citizen Preparedness. Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary of Emergency Preparedness and Response for Homeland Security, said "FEMA published and is distributing the free Are You Ready? Guide, because we know that being prepared for disasters is everyone's responsibility. We're delighted that in just seven months, so many people have called to order this informative and comprehensive source of what to do when disaster strikes. We are prepared to print more when our original printing of 265,000 are gone. Brown said the Are You Ready? Guide walks the reader through how to get informed about local emergency plans, how to identify hazards that affect their area, and instructs them on how to develop and maintain an emergency communications plan and build their own disaster supplies kit. The preparedness facts are based on the most reliable hazard awareness and emergency education information, such as the latest scientific knowledge and physical research on what happens in disasters. Nearly 3,000 Are You Ready? Facilitator Guides for those interested in delivering FEMA's disaster preparedness content in a classroom or small group setting have also been ordered. The facilitator guide contains training modules for adults and older and younger children and contains a CD ROM tool-kit with customizable slides and hazard-specific fact sheets. College credit for the Are You Ready? course is being offered through Frederick Community College, Frederick, MD. FEMA's Publications Warehouse offers Are You Ready? in English only, while FEMA's Web site, FEMA.gov, has the Guide for downloading in both English and Spanish. Four preparedness booklets supplement the preparedness resource catalog. Topics include: 1) Preparing for Disaster; 2) Food and Water in an Emergency; 3) Preparing for Disaster for People with Disabilities and other Special Needs; and 4) Helping Children Cope with Disaster. Organizations are urged to use the Web site's instructions for printing large quantities of the Guide, even customizing the covers with organization seals or logos. Are You Ready? is just one of many resources Homeland Security provides American citizens to help them be prepared against all types of hazards. Homeland Security's Ready campaign seeks to help America be better prepared for even unlikely emergency scenarios. Information on how the public can be ready in case of a national emergency, including a possible terrorism attack involving biological, chemical or radiological weapons, can be found by logging on to>a href=http://www.ready.gov> Ready.gov or by calling 800-BE-READY for printed information. Florida, Utah and Maryland currently top the list of states requesting Are You Ready? For your free copy, link to the FEMA Web site, FEMA.gov , or call FEMA toll free at 1-800-480-2520. FEMA prepares the nation for all hazards and manages federal response and recovery efforts following any national incident. FEMA also initiates mitigation activities, trains first responders, works with state and local emergency managers and managers the National Flood Insurance Program and the U.S. Fire Administration. FEMA became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on March 1, 2003.