What does it mean to be prepared for emergencies and disasters?

What does it mean to be prepared?

When we think about emergencies, we often focus on the moment something happens: a flood, extreme weather event, power cut, major incident or public health emergency.

But preparedness starts much earlier.

It can involve understanding the risks a community faces, making plans, training people, testing systems and building relationships between organisations that may need to work together.

Preparedness also means thinking about what could happen next. Emergencies can create knock-on effects across different services and communities, particularly when systems such as energy, transport, communications and supply chains are interconnected.

It’s important to look at resilience across individuals, communities, organisations and society, rather than treating emergency preparedness as the responsibility of a single organisation.

Why does preparation need to happen before an emergency?

Once an emergency is happening, there may be little time to work out who is responsible for what.

Preparation allows organisations and communities to think through different scenarios in advance, identify potential problems and establish ways of working together.

Our work with the C19 National Foresight Group during the Covid-19 pandemic is an example of this approach. The group brought together government departments, agencies and other organisations to consider the longer-term consequences of the pandemic while the immediate response was still taking place.

This kind of foresight is vital when risks are changing. Extreme weather events, for example, can combine in unexpected ways, making it difficult to predict exactly what an emergency will look like.

Who is responsible for being prepared?

Emergency services and government organisations have important responsibilities, but preparedness doesn’t stop there.

We must move towards a whole-of-society approach to preparing for changing risks.

Businesses, schools, universities, voluntary organisations, community groups and individuals can all contribute to resilience.

Our research on climate adaptation highlights the importance of understanding vulnerabilities and risks at a local level and involving communities in preparing for and adapting to them.

For individuals, this might mean understanding local risks, knowing how to receive emergency information and thinking about how you’d respond if essential services were disrupted.

For organisations and communities, it can mean developing plans, sharing information, practising responses and understanding what different groups may need.

Why do communities need to be part of emergency preparedness?

Communities often have knowledge and relationships that emergency organisations can't develop on their own.

People know their neighbourhoods, understand local circumstances and may already have networks for supporting one another.

This becomes particularly important during emergencies that last for days or weeks, when formal services may be stretched and people may need to rely on wider community support.

Why are some people more vulnerable to emergencies than others?

An emergency doesn’t affect everyone in the same way.

People's ability to prepare, respond and recover can be influenced by factors such as their health, financial circumstances, housing, access to services and existing social inequalities.

This is especially relevant when thinking about climate-related emergencies. Communities already experiencing greater social and health inequalities can be more exposed to the impacts of a changing climate.

Preparedness therefore means asking not only what might happen, but also who might be affected, and what would they need?

How can we prepare for something we can't predict?

Preparedness doesn’t mean predicting exactly when an emergency will happen or knowing precisely what it will look like.

Instead, it means building the ability to respond when circumstances change.

Plans need to be flexible, and organisations need to know how to communicate and coordinate with one another. Communities need access to useful information. People need to understand what they can do and where they can get help.

Risks are also becoming more complex. Climate change, digital connectivity and interconnected global supply chains can create risks whose effects spread across different systems and communities.

What does preparedness look like after an emergency?

Preparation doesn’t end when the immediate danger has passed.

Recovery can involve restoring services, supporting affected communities and helping people deal with longer-term consequences. It can also provide an opportunity to understand what happened and improve future preparedness.

Resilience is a continuing process that includes identifying risks, preparing, mitigating, managing, recovering and adapting.

The experience of an emergency can become part of preparation for the next one.

Ultimately, preparedness is about building the capacity to cope with uncertainty before, during and after an emergency.

What you can do to be better prepared:

• Understand the risks where you live. Find out which emergencies are most relevant locally and where to get reliable information during an incident.
• Know how you would receive warnings. Make sure you know how local authorities and emergency services communicate important information.
• Think about disruption to essential services. Consider what you’d do if there were temporary problems with power, water, transport, communications or access to shops and services.
• Talk to the people around you. Check whether friends, family, neighbours or colleagues might need additional support during an emergency and think about how you could help each other.
• Keep learning. Emergency preparedness changes as risks change, so use reliable sources and update your plans when circumstances or local risks change.

Rowena Hill MBE,  Professor of Resilience, Emergencies and Disaster Science at Nottingham Trent University's School of Social Sciences.