An article in Wired challenges conventional thinking about how residents stock disaster kits – and how experts in the field should advise them, given ever changing standards in the field. An added challenge is getting residents to put the kits together in the first place due to cost, time and other factors. “There are massive issues of access and equity in terms of how people can stockpile even a couple of days’ worth of supplies, much less 14 or more,” Anita Chandra, RAND disaster researcher, told Wired. “When you’re talking about disasters, you’re talking about events that disproportionately affect those with the least access to assets.”
Part of the larger discussion covered in the article involves the role of the government in disaster recovery – and the role of the private citizen to help themselves. “It is not realistic, even in developed countries, to expect that the governmental infrastructure will be able to reach everyone within hours,” Daniel Barnett, disaster preparedness researcher at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told Wired. “Individuals need to have self-sustainability.”
Source:
https://www.wired.com/story/the-science-behind-home-disaster-preparedness-kits-is-a-disaster/
