Personal Safety
Article 1 - Awareness

Personal safety starts with you and there are a few things you need to understand before you get started.

  1. Your safety is a trade off between cost and security. The more ironclad you want your security to be the more it will cost. To illustrate our point, it costs less to install deadbolts than it does to install a bunker beneath your house.

  2. No plan survives the enemy. Since the disaster you are trying to mitigate does not know your plan, it's a little hard for it to adhere to your guidelines. No matter how much you try, something in your plan will be missed or simply go wrong. Knowledge is the key to enable you to adjust on the fly and the information in Personal Safety will provide the tools for you to do that.

  3. Many plans fail because they are too complicated. Remember that even a simple plan is better than no plan at all.

As we get started, we're reminded that Mark Twain once wrote, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." We won't try to bore you to tears with statitistics but we do use them to reinforce a point or clarify an explanation from time to time.

You may be wondering, what is there to worry about? That's a good question so let's take a look at a time line for the past twenty years:

  • 1987 Earthquake: Whittier, California - 8 dead
  • 1987 Supertyphoon Nina: Philippines - 1036 death
  • 1988 Hurricane Gilbert: Jamaica, Central America, Mexico - 318 dead
  • 1988 Spitak Earthquake: Spitak, Armenia - 55,000 dead
  • 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake: San Francisco - 63 dead
  • 1990 Earthquake: Luzon Philippines - 1,621 dead
  • 1991 Cyclone: Bangladesh - 138,000 dead
  • 1991 Volcano: Mount Pinatubo, Luzon, Philippines - 300 dead
  • 1992 Hurricane Andrew, Florida, Louisiana, United States - 26 dead
  • 1993 Midwest Floods: U.S. - 50 dead
  • 1993 First WTO bombing: New York, City - 6 dead
  • 1994 Paez river disaster, Cauca and Huila provinces, Colombia 1,100 dead
  • 1994 Car ferry M/S Estonia sinks in the Baltic Sea - 852 dead
  • 1994 North Ridge Quake in California - 57 dead
  • 1995 Kobe Earthquake, Kobe, Hyogo - 6,433 dead
  • 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing - 168 dead
  • 1995 Chicago Heat Wave of 1995, Chicago, Illinois - 739 dead
  • 1995 Sarin Attack Tokyo Subway - 12 Dead
  • 1996 Tornado: India - 600 dead
  • 1996 Cyclone: Andhra Pradesh, India - 2000 dead
  • 1996 Ice storm: Central U.S. - 26 dead
  • 1997 Multiple tornadoes: Texas - 29 dead
  • 1997 Volcano eruption: Monserrat - 19 dead
  • 1998 Hurricane Mitch, Central America 18,000 dead
  • 1999 Avalanche, Galtur, Austria - 31 dead
  • 1999 Earthquake: Izmit, Turkey/ Kocaeli, Turkey - 17,000 dead
  • 1999 Earthquake, Nantou, Taiwan - 2,415 dead
  • 1999 Tropical Cyclone 05B: Orisa, India - 10,000 dead
  • 1999 Mudslides, Vargas, Venezuela - 10,000 dead
  • 1999 Columbine School shooting: U.S. - 13 dead
  • 2000 Tornado: Pine Lake, Alberta, Canada - 12 dead
  • 2000 Earthquake: Baku, Azerbaijani - 26 dead
  • 2000 Flood: Mozambique - 800 dead
  • 2001 World Trade Center/Pentagon/Flight 93 - 2973 dead
  • 2001 Gujurat Earthquake, Bhuj, India - 30,000 dead
  • 2002 Hayman Fire, Denver, Colorado - 5 firefighters dead
  • 2002 Ferry sinking: Senegal - 1800 dead
  • 2003 Nightclub fire: West Worick, Rhode Island - 96 dead
  • 2003 Heat Wave: France - 10,000 dead
  • 2003 Earthquake: Algeria - 2,000 dead
  • 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake/Tsunami - 212,000 dead
  • 2004 Hurricane Ivan: U.S. - 22 dead
  • 2005 Hurricane Katrina: U.S. - 1,836 dead
  • 2005 Earthquake: Pakistan - 30,000 dead
  • 2006 Ferry sinking: Egypt - 1,400 dead
  • 2006 Earthquake: Indonesia - 6,000 dead
  • 2006 Plane crash: Kentucky - 49 dead
  • 2007 Plane crash: Brazil - 200 dead

This is by no means a comprehensive list and it is not meant to be. It does, however, offer you a glimpse at many of the disasters that have occurred over the past twenty years. It also reinforces the fact that disasters can be large or small, can be caused by a number of different factors both natural and manmade and can occur to anyone, anywhere in the world.

This list represents over 565,000 deaths. Understanding your risks and learning how to take appropriate counter measures is the best defense you can have in staying alive and that is what this site is all about. We will teach you the skills you need to keep youself and your family out of harm's way.

This article deals with general awareness. These are common sense items that you are probably already aware of but you need to brush up on. In order to survive any situation you need to be attentive of your environment.

Some examples include:

Be aware of your surroundings. Criminals rely on you being unprepared, inattentive, distracted or careless. Always look at what potential threats exist and look for ways to mitigate it. Look at your environment and envision the worst case scenario. It might be a threat such as a fire, electrical or a criminal incident. Actually imagine that event happening and think through what you might do if it were to occur.

Ask yourself, "What avenue of escape do I have?" Look for them. Pick them out and be prepared to use them. You might also ask, "What resources are at my disposal?" Are police or security nearby? Can you drive away? Is there a fire extinguisher nearby?

If you are inside of a building, look for an alternate exit. If it is at all possible, you want to avoid being in a room with only one exit. Multiple exits provide you with options.

Locate the emergency exits and determine where they are in relation to you. While you are at it, locate the fire alarms and fire extinguishers.

Always be aware of other people's action. Are they potentially hostile? Is that person lurking near your car or just waiting for someone? What will you do if their intentions are unclear or hostile? We will talk about avoidance a bit later. It's an important tool in staying safe and we'll teach you how to use it.

If you are unsure of someone's intentions, remove yourself from the situation. You can go back inside your home, the store or office and wait until the perceived threat is gone or summon assistance. If you are leaving a store and going to your car, advise someone of the situation and ask for an escort. If you are in a mall, ask for mall security. It's far better to over react to a situation that to ignore it and face an unfortunate consequence.

ATMs are a target of opportunity....for the criminal. Avoid them at night and always scrutinize your surroundings in the day.

Be aware of a changing environment. For example, if you are going to the mall and you park your car at 4:00 in the afternoon what will the parking lot look like when you exit at 7:00 that evening? Will your car be isolated in a dark location or beneath a light? Will that wet pavement turn to ice as the evening temperatures begin to drop? Think ahead!!

Step I is pretty simple but you would be amazed at the number of individuals that became victims because they violated the very basics of general awareness. Being inattentive while crossing a parking lot, forgetting the pot on the stove and not recongizing the ice on the bridge are all things that can lead to disaster when you fail to be aware of your environment.

Here are some crime stats and information from the U.S. Department of Justice1. The numbers are for 2005, the latest data available:

In 2005:

53% of incidents of violent crime occurred during the day between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Almost two-thirds of the rapes/sexual assaults occurred at night from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

The location of about a quarter of incidents of violent crime was at or near the victim's home. Among common locales for violent crimes were on streets other than those near the victim's home (19%), at school (12%), or at a commercial establishment (8%).
  • Teens and young adults experience the highest rates of violent crime.(Violent crime includes murder, rape and sexual assault, robbery, and assault.)
  • When compared with other age groups, persons age 65 or older were disproportionately affected by property crimes. (burglary, motor vehicle theft and property theft).
  • Sixty-seven percent of all victims of sexual assault were juveniles (under the age of 18); 34% of all victims were under age 12.
  • One of every seven victims of sexual assault were under age 6.
  • Forty percent of the offenders in the incidents reported who victimized children under age 6 were juveniles (under the age of 18)
The following fire statistics came from the Department of Homeland Security - U.S. Fire Administration. Once again, the latest data available is for 2005.
  • There were 3,675 civilians that lost their lives as the result of fire.
  • There were 17,925 civilian injuries that occurred as the result of fire.
  • There were 115 firefighters killed while on duty.
  • Fire killed more Americans than all natural disasters combined.
  • 83 percent of all civilian fire deaths occurred in residences.
  • 1.6 million fires were reported. Many others went unreported, causing additional injuries and property loss.
  • Direct property loss due to fires was estimated at $10.7 billion.
  • An estimated 31,500 intentionally set structure fires resulted in 315 civilian deaths.
  • Intentionally set structure fires resulted in an estimated $664 million in property damage.
What do these statistics mean? Two things:
1. Disasters often occur where we feel the most secure; in or near our home.
2. Disasters often occur to those we want to protect the most; our children.

That's it for Awareness. We know it's pretty simple stuff but awareness is at the foundation of safety. We want you to start thinking about your wellbeing and security and often that means little more than just paying attention.

The next article will build off of awareness and we have some great information lined up for you. We're pretty confident you just might learn a thing or two. Are you ready for the next step? Great! Just click here

1 Bureau of Justice Statistics. Summary Findings. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cvict_c.htm. March 3, 2007.







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