How Prepared Americans Are For An Emergency

Flat lay of a collection of items for disaster preparedness and emergency planning

Photo: CatLane / E+ / Getty Images

If you only had a couple of minutes to grab what’s most important to you before evacuating during an emergency, what would you take? That’s what a new survey asks 2-thousand U.S. adults in honor of National Preparedness Month.

Respondents were given 60 seconds to choose items from the FEMA emergency preparedness checklist, along with a few other household items and asked which they would take if a natural disaster was heading straight toward their home and they had to evacuate quickly.

  • A cell phone with a backup charger and battery tops the list (50%)
  • Important family documents, like insurance policies and identifications (45%), prescription medications (36%), food (36%) and water (33%) all rank high on the list.
  • People would take family photos or albums (30%) over a first-aid kit (28%) and a flashlight (28%), both of which FEMA recommends.
  • Laptops (26%) beat out a complete change of clothing (24%), a sleeping bag or warm blanket for each person (21%) and sturdy shoes (15%).

The survey also reveals:

  • Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they take emergency preparedness more seriously now than they did 10 years ago.
  • Over a third (36%) believe they’re the most prepared person they know, followed by their partner or spouse (14%) and their mom (11%).
  • Many people are also taking overall preparedness more seriously, including having an evacuation plan (86%) and security products at home, like waterproof or fireproof safes (81%).
  • But some Americans still keep their most important items in their wallet (24%), in a closet (24%), or in a drawer (22%).
  • If it meant they got to keep their most prized possessions forever, two in five would be willing to sleep on the floor for the rest of their lives, while 11% would gladly empty their entire bank account. And 20% of millennials would even pass on getting married in order to never lose their most important things.

Read the article at Talker


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