Disasters-and-Emergency-Preparedness Books

Steven Craig ate, lived, & breathed, response efforts following Katrina. Rather than writing from a literature review, he writes from a 1st hand experience perspective. This is one of the best books on the market, to help you develop a disaster plan for your family, so that in today's world, you will have the necessary information to prepare, respond, and recover, from a disaster, whether a local or mass catestrophic event, such as Katrina. Additionally, his experience is not soley Katrina based, he is an emergency manager, and has taught emergency management on a college level. His book is easy to read and understand; he leaves out the jargon, and presents the information for practical day-to-day application. susanf

This book was easy to get into and stay with as author tells of his experiences with helping in restoring Coast Guard facilities in Florida after Katrina. He writes of conditions he saw and offers good advice on things we can do which would be helpful should we experience such a tragedy. Found his preparedness section especially helpful as we never know when a disaster, natural or otherwise, may occur. One such tip was to have one person all family members would use to communicate if we were separated and didn't know where other members were.

This is an excellent book. Not the ususal format of tales told from the storm. Its an unbiased account from the perspective of a senior level Emergency Manager. This is a book that should be read by anyone involved in Emergency Planning and Operations. It is a brass tacks assessment of circumstances as they were encountered in a plain language no nonsense format. Steve Craig also highlights some of the activities of the responders in their free time.

Having been an Emergency Manager in the middle of the entire experience, I can say that this is an accurate account and assessment of the challenges experienced in responding to and managing the worst natural disaster in the history of this country.

I loved all the hints and practicality of this book, it was full of pictures and charts and other resources.

HEARD ABOUT BOOK VIA ART BELL RADIO SHOW. ONE THING: DID NOT KNOW AS AUTHOR CLAIMED, THAT 1994 CRIME CONTROL ACT OF CONGRESS FORBADES HOARDING MORE THAN A 6 MONTH SUPPLY OF FOOD. AUTHOR WELL LEARNED, ARTICULATE AND WELL ABOVE GROUND, IN CLEAR THINKING; RICH IN PRACTICAL ADVICE. THIS IS A SUPER BOOK.

This is the first book that I have read, that covers all phases of surviving a nuclear attack. It is the authors view that the chances of a surprise attack has actually increased since the end of of the Cold War. But he clearly shows that it is quit possible to survive an attack. The book is not politically correct, making it enjoyable to read and study.

After all of the recent natural disasters, I thought it would be a good idea to prepare a little. This book really opened my eyes! It isn't so much about surviving natural disasters as it is about facing evacuation. Apparently there is a minimum of three days from the time something happens and when the Red Cross and National Guard get there to start helping people. After hurricane Katrina, they admit that the three day estimate might be a bit of an understatement . . . after a large disaster, you might be on your own up to two weeks without outside help.

Even if you don't live in an area at risk for earthquakes or hurricanes, there are plenty of smaller disasters that trigger evacuations: fire at a chemical plant; a truck (or train) crashing and spilling dangerous contents; a dam breaking. Hurricanes and wildfires might leave you more time to prepare, but a lot of smaller disasters don't. These things are more common than you'd imagine, and once I started paying attention to the news, I noticed that small scale evacuations are happening all the time. You often get only a couple of minutes to gather your family and get out, which leaves no time to pack or gather supplies.

"Plan . . . Not Panic" teaches you how to prepare an evacuation kit for your family--something to keep packed and stored in a safe, easily accessible place, so that you need only grab it and go in an emergency.

Every time I re-read the book, I discover some new piece of advice. It's easy to read, easy to understand, and it has scattered bits of humor and personal experiences throughout, so you learn what you need to know without being overwhelmed. It prepares you for what it would be like to stay in an emergency shelter, so that when faced with an evacuation you aren't as stressed. In particular, I like that she says to be sure to pack entertainment . . . books, crossword puzzles, a deck of cards, anything compact that you can use to take your mind off the situation. Also, she says to include comfort items, little things that will ease your stress. All very good ideas!

I loaned my copy to my mother, who actually began preparing the family's kits before I got around to making ours! I bought a second copy and sent it to a friend in California, and she was quite impressed as well. Now I'm buying a third, to send to my mother-in-law. It makes a perfect gift for loved ones, and I cannot recommend it enough!

(Note: This is an older edition of the book. The newer edition has a red and white cover, and contains a few changes. (The revised title is "It's Time to Plan, Not Panic") Mainly, it points out that the lag time before help arrives might be longer than just 72 hours.)

A friend recommended that I get this book. I really like the outline format that showed me how to go from one subject to the next as I tried to figure out what our family would need. All of the news headlines have been frightening. This book showed me that I could at least try to do something to help myself. I also liked the fact that it gave me choices and I could work it into my budget.

I loved how easy to read and understand this book on preparedness is. Barbara made me feel like I could take care of myself and my family in an emergency. Even if the situation is bad, I can be prepared so we can at least cope. There were some ideas I'd never even considered before, that certainly made a lot of sense. I highly recommend this book.

The things that we learned after reading Your Survival and watching the DVD would have saved our family from the incredable problems that we are
encountering after our house was lost during the recent California fires.
Everyone should read this book and watch the DVD.

Compared to some of the other disaster and survival books on the market, this one is very user friendly and practical for families. The book is well organized into preparedness, survival, and after disaster sections. It offers suggestions that are realistic and fairly easy to do and also provides checklists and other useful tools. The dvd is a nice additional feature and reviews the topics in the book. While I haven't used it yet, there is also a website that appears to provide you with many online tools and suggestions. This book is very comprehensive and I would recommend it to any family that takes an interest in protecting their loved ones and assets in today's unpredictable world!

As a colleague of Dr. Melnick, I am delighted to be able to provide the most positive review. This book serves well both as a primer for PCPs on the general subject of biological, chemical, and radilogical terrorism and as a quick reference. Beyond its target audience, other medical and public health professionals, including EMS professionals, will find this volume very useful.

The book is well organized with concise sections where appropriate for each disease or agent on microbiology and epidemiology, presentation and treatment, post-exposure prohylaxis, and prevention. The illustrations are useful aids in differential diagnosis, and diagnostic, lab evaluation, and treatment information is given in clear tables.

The ease with which RDDs (dirty bombs) can be constructed and the recent federal full-scale exercise scenario makes the chapter on radiological terrorism timely.

The chapters on mental health issues related to terrorism and the key link between public health response and the PCP are welcome and emphasize matters often ignored.

This volume is a worthy contribution to the preparation of PCPs and others to deal with terrorism threats. Dr. Melnick's style is easy to read and conversational, making this book on a very dark subject a pleasure to read.

I read this book, and honestly, it is ahead of it's time. It covers a ton of ever changing governmental sources. His second book on transportation security is even better than the first book in terms of ideas on securing supply chains. I recommend this book to anyone in the infrastructure and/or security business.

I have read many disaster preparedness books, been involved in numerous disaster planning sessions and drills, and live in a hurricane zone. If I could recommend just one book this would be it. This book is full of sensible advice and sources for quality equipment. A handy feature is lists of "ultimate" equipment for folks for who money is no object and "bargain" equipment that will still hold up for people on a budjet. This is NOT an "arm yourself to the teeth and build a bomb shelter" book. It is practical, common sense advice for people who may be involved in any type of natural or man-made disaster.

Maybe you won't read all of it at once--but the accumulated knowledge here will help anyone out in a jam. Keep it with your toolbox, extra batteries and flashlights!

The Medical Response to Terrorism Textbook is EXCELLENT - I have really enjoyed reading it (and I HATE reading textbooks). Each chapter is up to date, focused, and written in a manner more reminiscent of a novel than a medical textbook. Limiting the number of pages per chapter really forced the authors to be concise and made each topic more inviting to read. Great stuff - Dr. Keyes, et al should be very proud.

This is a well written book that is of major importance to everyone. Disasters can strike anyone, anywhere and being prepared makes the ordeal much easier and in fact may save a life. The book is well written and lays out in detail each step of creating your own personal survival kit. There were so many things listed that I never would have thought about including that could make such a difference. I consider it a project we all need to take the time to complete in order to protect ourselves, our families and even our pets. Following the book makes the job so much easier and you will have everything that you would possibly need in the event of a disaster. This is definitely a book everyone needs on their bookshelf!