A Guide To Identifying Household Civil Defence Needs

Emergency preparedness is often daunting for the new person. Common obstacles/challenges include 

• Making sense of the overall topic.
• Figuring out what you need.
• The amount of work and complexity involved is far greater than your enthusiasm.

This article presents a high-level map to kick-start preparedness for households. Clicking on the image will magnify it.

The Map

This map provides a big-picture view for someone new to preparedness. The practical uses are

• Show the full spectrum of possible readiness as a single 'big picture'. 
• To compare your current readiness against and identify any gaps.
• To show where the advice/information can be applied. 

Working top-down, the standard 4Rs of the Civil Defence framework are converted into a set of capabilities or steps appropriate for any circumstances. 

This map is a 'one size fits all' approach for organising anyone's thinking. As such, the reader needs to

• Tailor the range of risks and responses for their environment.
• Work out the detail of each risk/response for their circumstances. 

Using This Map 

So, it feels like there's a lot you could do or maybe even feel you should do - where do you start? 

Pick one thing, get it done just good enough for your standards, and then move onto the next thing. At the right time, come back to the first thing and improve it as appropriate.

Choosing the First Thing 

If you are concerned about a specific risk, then you could address that progressively- this lets you prioritise time, money and enthusiasm. E.g. earthquake risk 

• Determine the risk of an earthquake and the potential impacts
• Choose your responses e.g. reduce potential damage, have a get home bag
• Prepare the chosen responses e.g. set up a 'Get Home' bag 
• Practice and refines their responses e.g. walk the Get Home route.

If however, you have a general uncertainty, then you could focus on the generic responses e.g. how to Get Home in any type of Event.

• Prepare the chosen responses e.g. set up a 'Get Home' bag.
• Practice and refines their responses e.g. walk the Get Home route.
• Later on, update the chosen responses for individual Events e.g. if an earthquake knocks out key bridges on your preferred get home route.  

Core Concept

A 'capability' is what an household needs to be able to do. Each involves some combination of: gear, skills, supplies and realistic expectations.  You might also think of them as 'sub-processes', 'competencies' etc.

Guide To Map Content

Term	Definition
Civil Defence ‘R’ Phase	The main phases NZ Civil Defence uses in their model.
Prepping Phase	A model invented by the author. There is no universal standard known of.
Household Capabilities & Competencies	The individual competencies that a household might have, in order to prepare for and deal with an Event.
Identify Risk	Convert a possible Event into a risk assessment i.e. If this Event happens then the impacts to my household are…
Identify Response	Determine what the household will do if the Event happens
Prepare Response	Set up the response e.g. organise equipment, supplies etc
Practice	Run through the prepared Response and verify how well it works. Determine what improvements are needed to be satisfactory, if any. Implement the improvements. Repeat the Practice cycle until you are satisfied.
Get Home	The ability for all household members to get home in the immediate aftermath of an Event.
Get Through At Home	The ability for the household to get through the extended aftermath of an Event. Typically defined as having enough supplies to last for a defined period of days or weeks.
Evacuate	The ability for the household to evacuate the home in the aftermath of an Event.
Get Though   Away From Home	The ability for the household to get by at a bug-out location in the aftermath of an Event. Typically defined as having access to enough supplies to last for a defined period of days or weeks.
Return Home	The ability for the household to return home from a bug-out location.
Rebuild	The ability for a household to re-establish itself, where the original life has been significantly damaged or destroyed e.g. Restoring damaged contents or the family home has been rendered uninhabitable.

Scope of Map

1. Breadth is limited to the 'temporary disruption' style of Events common in Civil Defence/ Emergency Management. 
2. Events with more prolonged disruptions e.g. 'SHTF' style scenarios are not considered yet.

Assumptions Used 

A series of assumptions were made that shaped the above process and framework.

1. Household work on individual Events one at a time, progressively building up their total capability.
2. Readers are familiar with the generic concepts and only unique terms need to be described.
3. Each risk and response (e.g. earthquake) is put through the generic process, producing an individual analysis for the specific event. Where possible, . the actual preparation for individual Events is consolidated into the appropriate capability e.g. ‘Get Through At Home’ provides for all Events such as loss of power, loss of water etc.