Planning

• Natural Hazard Mitigation Planning: A Community Guide
• Swansea Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan
• Hurricane Preparation

Volunteers

First responders like firefighters and police make up less than 1% of the population. They cannot be everywhere - or even most places. So the vast majority of rescues are done by regular people.

The problem is, regular people have almost never been intelligently engaged in emergency planning - until perhaps, now. "It's a brilliant move," says Wendy Spencer, head of Florida's volunteerism commission.

"The first person that is going to help you is going to be your neighbor," says Karen Baker, California's new secretary of service and volunteering. "So we want your neighbor to know how."