Greetings from Across the Pond

[judicatr]

Greetings all from the American Southwest. I came across your site and have been enjoying your conversations and discussions regarding “prepping”.

In the USA, emerency management is coordinated through National Emergency Management System (NIMS) protocals. The Federal agency responsible for insuring the NIMS protocals are followed is Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). To help all responding agencies, local, state, and national, as well as individual citizens, coordinate their efforts, FEMA offers free “Independent study programs” (google FEMA ISP). Many of these programs are geared to first responders and emergency managers but some are geared toward individual citizens. In addition, many local governements have Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), manned by citizen volunteers, that are trained to respond to both natural and man-made disasters.

I’ve found these programs and resources to be very useful toward “prepping” here. Does the UK have a similar programs? My internet search hasn’t produced much in the way of results and I’m personally and professionally curious.

Best regards from across the pond and thanks for your time.

[the-gnole]

Hi Judicatr

Welcome aboard.

We have a few bits of advise from Gov't agencies, have a google for UK resilience.

[preppingsu]

Welcome. Glad you find the site informative.

[the-gnole]

We have a few bits of advise from Gov't agencies, have a google for UK resilience.

And of course there is the Civil Defence crews

http://www.britishcivildefence.org/

[judicatr]

Thank you. I'll have a look at those sites.

[diamond lil]

When you say "professionally curious" that makes me curious too -what do you work at?
and hi !

[judicatr]

@Diamond Lil - Professionally I'm a first responder (law enforcement) in local government and have been in that profession now for some 18 years. I've helped to coordinate and commanded responses to disasters in my own community and adjoining jurisdictions; mostly wildfires, tornados, and severe weather incidents - right now, for example, we've had extensive snows that have cut off several Native American Pueblo Communities, so we been helicoptering in supplies and teams to check on folks. But I've also particiapated in larger scale events like New Orleans post Hurricane Katrina. We also train, unfortunately, for large scale criminal events (riots), terrorist attacks and WMD events, and man-made disasters like chemical spills, etc.

Former President Reagan once said "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help'" He was joking, but only a little. The men and women I work with want to help and really want to do the right thing by our fellow citizens and communities; but there are lots of citizens and a just a few of us and getting to everyone takes time. And besides no matter how much we want to help, who wants to become a dependent on the state. Better to rely on yourself, your neighbors, your friends & family, your religious affiliation, ect. - your immediate community. No matter how bad things get - no one who wants to be eating government food and living government housing forever.

My pesonal interest in prepping furthers the goal of building a more resilient life personally and in my community. That way when I have to respond in a professional sense things go smoother and get back to "normal" faster. I became interested in the UK programs after having the opportunity to train with some folks from your corner of the world.

Sorry long winded answer to a simple question.

[Carrot Cruncher]

Hi, and welcome to the site.

It will be good to have someone with your background around the place. There is a lot of stuff written on prepping and survival sites both in the UK and in the US by people who have "heard it from a friend" or who have watched a Youtube clip saying that this or that happens.

It will make a nice change to hear from someone who is actually involved in the way things work.

[itsybitsy]

It will be good to have someone with your background around the place. There is a lot of stuff written on prepping and survival sites both in the UK and in the US by people who have "heard it from a friend" or who have watched a Youtube clip saying that this or that happens.

It will make a nice change to hear from someone who is actually involved in the way things work.

Agreed!

[pseudonym]

Hello and welcome to the Forum.