During this year various government and academic sources have published studies regarding the preparedness in rural America for man-made and natural disasters. Generally, the researchers examined the critical infrastructures and key resources found throughout the rural areas of the United States that could be incapacitated or destroyed by terrorists as well as nature. The reports substantiated that there is a concentration in rural America of agriculture, food production facilities, dams, nuclear power plants, portions of the electrical grid, interstate highway and communication systems, emergency services, etc., all of which are vulnerable to attack.

Several studies provided compelling evidence of significant investments in disaster preparedness in rural areas of the nation. Despite this progress, numerous researchers indicated the necessity for more improvement in more rural regions of the country. They wrote that many sparsely populated localities received low marks because the communities lack the resources to effectively respond to an incident. The examiners also learned that many preparedness activities do not lend themselves to quick solutions and require more prolonged and sustained effort.

The level of preparedness improved when rural areas or counties joined their preparedness endeavors and formed regional groups. The studies overwhelmingly specified that regionalization is a superior approach for rural towns and counties to acquire scarce resources for their emergency managers and first responders. Combining with other communities or counties to develop