When the Next Crisis Hits the Fan, Will You Be Ready?

We’re not a country that likes to plan much—more often, Americans rely on their wits to get out of a crisis. Yet as the pace of social and economic change — not to mention climate change — has accelerated over the last several decades, so, too, have the number of crises we face in our lifetime. Many of these situations may not be foreseeable or preventable, but they may be more manageable, if we take the time to put a crisis management plan in place. In this episode, host Ron Roel talks with Linda Fostek, an internationally recognized speaker, author and expert in crisis planning, who will help us successfully manage the personal and natural crises that we will inevitably face, and as she puts it, “Get off the Worry-go-Round.” Linda lays out the four stages of preparation; she will describe how to create your own ICE (In Case of Emergency) files; and identify who needs to know about your plan, and what they need to know about it. She offers examples of plans that have helped avert crises, and cases where lack of planning has led to dire consequences. As a member of her regional Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), Linda also talks about how crisis-management plans can be applied across communities, bringing together people and resources to help recovery efforts —and often save lives. Her approach to planning —inspired by her late father—has been to face crises with one mindset: Be part of the solution, instead of part of the problem.