The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why

by Amanda Ripley

2. Get to Know Your Neighbors: If you know that an elderly man lives alone three doors down and a woman with a generator lives around the block, your community will be better equipped to handle most disasters than if you had a bunker full of canned goods. In most major disasters, as this book illustrates, the people who will save you will not be wearing badges. They will be your neighbors and your coworkers. Towns across the country (such as Ashland, Oregon, and King County, Washington) have mapped their neighborhoods to help identify assets and vulnerabilities. One way to do this is the formal way, through your local Community Emergency Response Team (CERT: citizencorps.gov/​cert/ [inactive]). Or you could buy a case of beer and throw a block party. Pass around a sign-up sheet, have people write down what they might need help with in an emergency and what help they might be able to offer. Make sure everyone has a list of everyone else’s phone numbers and e-mail addresses—and an assignment for whom they are supposed to check on the next time the sky opens up or the sun melts the asphalt. Every year, people are saved from destruction because they knew their neighbors. This is a tradition that has kept our species thriving for many millennia, and it is nothing but foolish to abandon it now.