Basic Definition of Emergencies

 Where do you start with preparedness?  For me, the first place I started was by doing a threat analysis.   Generally speaking here are the four types of crises or emergencies:

Personal:

• Home burns down
• Lose a job or a source of income
• Car breaks down
• Major illness
• Divorce or death of an immediate family member
• Home invasion/mugging

Local:

• Flood
• Snowstorm 
• Tornado
• Utility outage (power, gas, water, etc.)
• Localized civil disturbance

Regional:

• Hurricane or other large weather disturbance
• Regional outbreak of  illness
• Riots/Civil unrest over a large area
• Wider, large spread utility outage last more than a couple of days
• Suspension of travel due to disaster/government restrictions following an event (see my post here about the movie Contagion).
• Drought/crop failure 

National/Global:

• Worldwide pandemic
• Disruption of the delivery of petroleum and other energy sources.
• Large scale weather event.
• Worldwide drought/crop failure
• Terrorist attack with weapons of mass destruction, including the use of an electromagnetic pulse to destroy the electric grid.
• Total societal breakdown 

We'll take a look at each of these levels of emergencies, some examples of what a person may face, and how to prepare for it.   We'll start small at personal disasters and build from there.