This month communities, organizations, businesses and schools will practice their plans and test their security systems. Other groups will discuss their needs and update plans. People will be put in charge of safety and well being. The work is not all drudgery and people enjoy the break from routine.

Families need to plan even more than communities do. Contact people need to be identified, emergency communication plans written, and back ups produced of important documents including family history items. Families need funds and food, gear and systems just as much as the big guys. Once families have a flexible plan that can adapt to each challenge, they should practice the plan.

Think how fun it would be for kids to run a communication drill in the middle of a school day. The family could debrief at the park. There they could discuss how long it took to inform everyone and to meet at the assigned point. They could run evacuation drills or fire drills. Another exercise is a treasure hunt of the house to develop 72 hour/evacuation kits.

Your “Don’t overreact” bit was cute, but “Wisdom is the better part of valor” always rules the day. In other words, when you live in a “geographically challenged” area, don’t depend on someone else to save you and yours. It can’t always be done.

Have a local rallying point for family members.

Local laws permitting, consider arming yourself to deal with lawlessness such as occurred after Katrina.

Make provisions for your pets. Many Katrina victims refused to leave because they would not leave their pets.

The less you rely on the government, the fewer problems you will probably have.

The topic of preparation is a huge topic. With all of the material about homesteading, first aid, sanitation, 72-hour survival, navigation, animal first aid, alternative transportation, primitive technology, urban bushcraft, edible and medicinal plant identification, water purification, bugging out vs. sheltering in, food/water storage, vermin control, improvised shelter, etc., I expected a little more from an article with such a generalized title as, “Disaster Preparedness.”

Since knowledge is power, I would have thought Dr. Siegel would have at least included the recommendation for all people to do what they can to inform themselves better. Buy books. Go to the Red Cross and FEMA websites, put away some cash in case the ATM’s fail, keep a few small jugs of gasoline (in proper containers, easier to lift than one giant jug) in the garage, sign up to a few “prepper” websites, get spare batteries for the flashlights and radios, use texting instead of voice on one’s cell phone in an emergency, and in general learn what other people are doing.

Whatever. People, especially senior citizens, look up to doctors as legitimate authority figures. Nowadays everybody has access to cell phones, the internet, the public library, etc.. Perhaps next time the good Doctor writes, he will put a little more creativity into his article. I doubt he could do much harm by urging everyone to be more informed, prepared, and aware, rather than basically telling them to avoid going to the hospital and get 3 months of prescription meds, water, and food. There is a lot more to this topic than meets the eye in this article. Dr. Siegel clearly meant well, but obviously has not even a sliver of an idea of what he presumes to discuss.