The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why

by Amanda Ripley

5. Calculate Your Risk: Make a list of your biggest risks. Try to use data, not just emotion. The chapters on Risk and Resilience in this book document how your vulnerabilities vary depending on who you are right now: young, old, male, female, rich, poor. But geography matters too. Check the website for your state or county homeland-security or emergency-management office in order to get a short list of local hazards. If that doesn’t work (and it often doesn’t, sadly), enter your zip code at floodsmart.gov to get an estimate of your flood risk. Try earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/byregion to map your earthquake risk. The website for this book (amandaripley.com/books/the-unthinkable#blog) lists other tools—on the blog under “Preparedness.” Honestly, the government should make this easier for us. I hope that happens one day. For now, it’s still easier than it ever has been. One rule to live by: the most deadly, underappreciated threats in most places are fire, flood, and lightning. Get a smoke detector, replace the batteries every time you change your clocks (or sooner), evacuate well in advance of a major storm, and do not, I repeat do not, drive or walk through water. Realize that your brain will err on the side of overconfidence when it comes to fire, flood, and lightning—just as it errs on the side of laziness when it comes to getting up at 5:30 in the morning. Both can be overcome with the right motivation and a little knowledge of the consequences.