In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

While doing some research last week, I came upon a survey commissioned by New York City’s Office of Emergency Management regarding the level of citizen preparedness. I had seen the survey when it was released in September, 2007, but had not — as I should have — really looked closely at the results. It turns out that the poll has some very interesting findings, which I think should be used to help guide City policy and activities in this area. 

The press release’s link title is:

Preparedness Poll Shows New Yorkers Are Prepared

The release’s headline is: 

NYC OFFICE OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT (OEM) POLL FINDS MORE NEW YORKERS ARE PREPARED FOR EMERGENCIES

The press release’s first sentence says:

“…more New Yorkers say they are prepared or informed about emergencies than said they were prepared or informed in 2005″.

Each of three actually makes a different contention, and the results of the survey only back up the third. According to the poll, 57% of New Yorkers say they are prepared, up from 49% two years before. That would be a positive development if their actions were in line with their answers.

The disconnect between perception and reality is not unexpected. But the gap is huge. When you drill down into the numbers, it turns out that the actual level of public preparedness is not even close to 57%. In fact, according to the survey, conducted by the Global Strategy Group:

*only 6% of New Yorkers report having a disaster plan that includes all the preparedness elements OEM recommends

*Only 11% say they would know what to do in the event of a terrorist attack (though 77% believe an attack is going to occur in New York). A couple more (12%) say they would know what to do in the event of a hurricane.

Now, there are some potentially encouraging findings in the survey — for example, 53% reported they have assembled a ‘go-bag’, which is higher than I would have predicted. And generally, I do think that, due to in large part to the public education efforts of OEM (conflict of interest alert — I am a OEM-CERT member) and the Red Cross among others, awareness of emergency preparedness in New York has grown.

That said, I think there should be some concern among City officials that only 1 in 10 of their citizens knows what to do in the event of a disaster (which, by the way, three-fourths are expecting to happen soon). And, these numbers would seem to call for more focus on figuring out how to raise them.

In the months since this survey was released, I have spoken to a number of those involved in the City’s emergency preparedness activities, but have never asked them about these results. I intend to do so soon.