Creating a BUFFER between your business and disaster

It was a scary night and the sounds of sirens kept you and your family awake. Luckily, your home sustained minimal damage, but upon arriving at the office, you realize that the problem there is much larger. Trees are down, power lines are down, and it appears that a portion of the office building has been damaged and water has damaged much of the interior. It could be weeks before things are back to normal.

More and more, businesses are writing continuity plans for just such a scenario, and the obvious focus needs to be on back-up systems, communication and order fulfillment… but there’s a problem…

You built this start-up company of yours from the ground up. You read every article, created a plan and your social media marketing campaigns literally built your customer base! How do you maintain that momentum while dealing with everything else? Half of each day for the next week you’ll be trying to dry out your file cabinets while attempting to find contractors! Don’t forget, internet around town is going to be difficult to access as well.

Using social media marketing is all about connections and momentum. Each day, businesses experience success simply because they have used social media to build their customer base and they have maintained that customer base by faithfully keeping up a level of momentum.

Now, for the next two weeks, your FaceBook Page will be a ghost town. Your Twitter will lay dormant. Momentum is gone while you recover from last night’s storm. You could lose followers, lose business, miss connections and opportunities and worse yet, lose months of hard work.

As a disaster preparedness educator and emergency response consultant, I am continually looking for that one solution to problems like this. In order for something to be a solution in my world, it has to be simple, affordable and easy to use. Buffer is that solution.

While you are inundated with the daily woes of rebuilding, recovering, reconnecting, restocking, re-ordering and well, let’s face it, re-thinking, Buffer can maintain momentum for your company behind the scenes. Your customers may never know you took a hit!

During a recent hospitalization, my clientele never even knew I was “out-of-the-loop”. Simple instructions given to my assistant along with my Buffer account password kept my social media campaign alive for over a week! I’m a Buffer-Believer.

According to the Business Institute of America, 25% of all businesses caught up in disasters do not reopen. Over the years, I have interviewed hundreds of business owners throwing in the towel after a disaster not because of poor insurance coverage, but because the thought of reconnecting with their clientele or customer base would “just take too long”.

Getting back to business after a disaster depends on preparedness planning today. Acquiring a simple Buffer account can secure your social media campaigning in the wake of a disaster and can easily be used by you in short bursts or can even be delegated to support personnel outside the disaster area until you are able to take the reins again yourself.

The folks at Buffer have created perhaps one of the easiest, most affordable business continuity protection tools available today without even knowing it. In a world that now thrives in a social media world, there is a way to stay alive even when the “real world” isn’t online.

Find Buffer

Cahokia's Kids and our philosophy on learning

If you are a parent of kids who go to school, you have probably heard many times expressions like "I hate homework", "I hate school" or "I don't want to learn". I have several children myself, and believe me, we’ve been through this a thousand times.
As a program coordinator or even a volunteer for an organization, it is easy to fall into the trap of supplying entertainment for kids simply because your educational events don’t go over well; it is probably because those educational events resemble that “school learning” and the “draw is certainly not going to be as great as that of a magician, a haunted house or a pizza party.
Here’s the truth: learning is harder when you do not understand WHY you should learn, how you learn and what you gain from learning. Unfortunately, most kids do not know what happens to them in the process of learning, so they only see the pain associated with it, instead of the pleasure. There is a reason why Chasing4Life programs are not only popular, but SUCCESSFUL, and by that, I mean that children RETAIN what they are taught at these events, and they actually are motivated to become educators themselves.
The brain
Our brain has 100 billion cells. Each cell carries a single thought, experience or feeling. This single thing, which the brain registers as an experience, moves in the brain the way electricity flows from the power station to your house.
We do not use all the cells we have in the brain. Some people say we use only a small portion of the brain, others say we use a bit more, but everyone agrees there are plenty of brain cells we do not use. Everything you do in life helps you use more of the cells in your brain. When you play, sleep, eat, laugh, cry or learn, you use more cells in your brain. The theory then? DO MORE STUFF.
When the same experience happens again and again, we no longer need to learn it - we do it automatically. Take walking, for example. At first, you need to concentrate on sending the right messages from your brain to your legs and back and you still wobble and fall down. But after some practice, you do it automatically - you no longer think about it. It is easy. The system I created years ago when I founded Chasing4Life is the same teaching system I use to this day and it is embedded in the Cahokia’s Kids Programming: repetition. People will ask if their child can attend only those programs in the series that sound interesting to them, but with this system we are using, each program overlaps the next, repeating lessons learned and intertwining them with the next lessons being taught. Each program begins with a review so the repetition is constant throughout the year.
How successful is this? We have children in Junior High School now that can still, to this day, repeat the severe weather facts they learned in First Grade at Chasing4Life programs!
“We need to be smarter”
We have a lot of phrases that the kids learn throughout the programs. One phrase is, “We need to get smarter”. The brain is like a machine that needs oil. Learning is that oil. The more you oil your brain, the better it runs. If you want to be smart, you need to make sure your brain works all the time. Every new thing you learn and repeat until it is automatic makes your brain machine faster and smarter. When you are talking about disaster planning and preparedness, you need to be able to operate like a machine quickly and there is no time to try to re-engage your brain last minute.
If you want to use your thinking brain more, you have to do more of the things that make you happy. If you need to learn something that is important to you, do it in a way that will make you happy. The Chasing4Life programs are fun, they relate to current events, they cause families to interact, and they are FUN. Remember, when you are happy, you remember everything.
So, if you have not done so yet, visit www.cahokiaskids.com and check out a new and exciting way to learn.

Winds of change

Texas oil tycoon H.L. Hunt was indeed a man who knew how to make a decision. The proof is in the fruit. He ended up a TYCOON.

Hunt once said, “Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities and go to work.”

For years, operating Chasing4Life has been a labor of passion and love. Knowing that we were changing lives, knowing we were reaching massive amounts of people with a message that could save their lives all kept us going. Unfortunately, the financial end lacked. Several years ago, we decided to venture into the world of disaster response; the idea came easy as we saw need, and decided to meet it. We had no business plan, no financier, just a will to do the work.

The same happened when we saw the opportunity to present an I.C.E. Application for iPhones. The same happened when we got involved in animal rescue. The same happened when we began to create educational training DVD’s.

Now, none of these ventures came to us in the middle of the night or in visions. The calls, the requests, the inquiries and even sometimes the begging all came from people. When we presented the I.C.E. Application, it was because literally over 100 of our friends and clients said it was a great idea that they could support. When we got into disaster recovery work, it was because literally dozens of community leaders and church leaders said it was something they could get behind and support. When we began to create training DVD’s, it was because incredible numbers of agencies and organizations were requesting them.

But then there is reality. The check was always in the mail, but never arrived.

The I.C.E. App has been recreated because of the lack of support. We are taking it to a new market. The training DVD's are being distributed by a distributor. The TV show is being re-produced for a new market and a new network. A whole new staff for the C4LDRT will be announced by Christmas.

To those who never showed? We're still going...without you.

It is now November, and as the famous song says, the “winds of change are blowing”. A coldness is creeping across the country, changing the way people react, dress, operate, travel, plan and work. The same is happening at Chasing4Life.

Over the course of the last three years, we have “partnered” with many people and organizations only to find that the momentum was all ours. Many companies and organizations we have partnered with have yet to take their first step in cross-marketing, support or involvement. Simple Google searches pull up these “partners” who, some of which, have not even updated their websites in a year let alone have they thought to post something in the social media realm since the first months of the year. Momentum is non-existent, connection and communication seem to be all but vanished.

And then there are the people. The volunteers, the instructors, the administrators, the coordinators. So many that wanted to hitch themselves to Chasing4Life, yet as it was revealed, in name only to bolster other agendas.

With hundreds of thousands of school children educated in disaster preparedness, hundreds of agencies trained and tens of thousands of families reached, no matter what your opinion of the method, Chasing4Life has been a force to be reckoned with and our influence has travelled around the globe.

Now, as the winds shift outside, they shift inside as well.

As the new year approaches, we know that the needs are going to be great. Disasters are increasing, schools are beckoning more than ever. Agencies are looking for more of the quality Chasing4Life has presented in the past, and the time has come to follow in the words and footsteps of H.L. Hunt and make decisions, establish priorities, and get to work.

The new year is bringing a whole new application process for our C4LDRT volunteers and staffers. The arrival of the new mobile command unit has brought with it opportunity to serve like never before, but we have chosen to man not only the vehicle, but the entire organization with only those dedicated to training, serving, protecting and sacrificing. We are only going to consider those willing to answer the call.

Our sponsorships and partnerships will be similar. No more can we afford to spend time and effort on those with no momentum, no passion, no vision and no dedication. Companies and organizations alike will have to have their own momentum that they bring to the table; and a plan as to how to combine it with the power, momentum and reach of Chasing4Life.

As for our staff? So many have voiced concern that their careers are not lucrative enough, that there has been no real explosion of their popularity, no real increase in demand. With over 700 programs presented this year by only three of our instructors, we will leave this portion of the conversation with one statement: If the grass seems greener on the other side of the fence, it is perhaps because they maintain it better over there…

It is a year for change. The Mayans could have been right, after all, which means we have 12 months to leave our mark. If they were wrong, then this will be the year that changes Chasing4Life forever. We will reach more, teach more, save more, fix more, respond more, love more, laugh more and last longer.

Now, why the change?

It is because of the advice of the wise few. Tim. Chris. Theresa. Jeff. Hearts tuned to what we do and where we are going. It is also because we have a responsibility to be good stewards of what has been given us by Baron Services, HiViz, FoxFury, and NUPLA. Partners that have proven they understand partnership and the word “support”.

To those of you that have been that support? There is no way to ever thank you enough.

Why the change?

Because it’s time to take this whole thing to a new level.

The future's in the air
I can feel it everywhere
Blowing with the wind of change

(Scorpions-Wind of Change)

If the Mayans were right...

A few months ago I had the opportunity to visit Cahokia Mounds State Park on the outskirts of St. Louis. Never heard of it? I am not surprised.
The Cahokia Indians lived in St. Louis long before Lambert was built; long before the floods of the 90's. Long before the Arch. They lived (and died) in St. Louis from 800-1400 AD.
For years I have wanted to experience the Mayan temples and pyramids in Mexico, but as I had never gotten there, with 2012 quickly approaching, I went to Cahokia Mounds... a Pre-Columbian settlement right in the heart of America.
As I walked the grounds with my son, Jonathon, we talked about what their life must have been like and wondered what connections there were to the Mayan culture. Much of it was similiar.
With all the "hoopla" about 2012 being the end of the world, I wanted to see if there was "spiritual experience" I could have with my son, so we climbed to the top of the Priest's Mound, and stood still listening as if we might hear some spirit speak to us...
It did.
Here is what I heard:

"We lived a long time ago and we know you have forgotten us. Most of you do not know we ever existed, and so you attribute much of your history to the American Indian that hunted buffalo and battled the white man, but we were before that...
We lived here. Ate here. Farmed here. We had no science to speak of, no weather radios, no television, and so we lived here without any knowledge of where we were or what we might encounter.
We settled here against the banks of the most powerful river, built huts and temples here on top of the New Madrid Earthquake fault, and we experienced powerful twisting winds that destroyed all that we built every couple of years...swirling forces that came with no notice.
And now we are gone. There is nothing here bu some broken pottery, a few stone tools and these mounds...
Learn from us..."

Okay, maybe I did not hear a voice, but that is what I heard in my mind.

I did my research. There are a lot of explanations as to where these people went, but each one is as good as another, and so I added my own theory... these people lived in the worst disaster area I could think of and never had a chance.

Now, in 2012, we are launching our new "Cahokia's Kids" Disaster Preparedness Series of programs. This series will not only replace our 2010-2011 Scouting Series, but will offer the opportunity for ANY children to participate. We will teach about the Cahokia's. We will speculate as to what happened. We will look at how we can be better prepared for the future...

The Mayan Calendar never said life would end, folks... it said that the TIME would end. What time? Well, it could be that time we live in now where travel is easy, gasoline is available, homes have heat and electric and there are groceries available at every corner market. Maybe they are right... maybe the TIME in which we live will end and will find ourselves thrust into a new time where those who were prepared will stand on their mounds and watch cities crumble.

I hope not, but it makes you think doesn't it? After all, at some point, there were these Cahokias...

Check out our new pages at www.CahokiasKids.com

Everyone can go...somehow

As the 9-11 Anniversary has, for the most part, arrived, members of the Chasing4Life team have found themselves in Joplin, Missouri. The airwaves are literally full of images, videos, recordings, TV specials and talk shows all focusing on the events that shook this country ten years ago, and the atmosphere in Joplin is one of resolve, of remembrance, and of hope.
The country has certainly come together, at least mentally, as the media and the calendar have offered us all something to focus on together.
But there is a lot more going on in this country right now other than an anniversary.
It is this weekend that Joplin will focus on service, with volunteers in the thousands descending on the city to work and to rebuild. It is this weekend that Texas will continue to battle against hell's flames in a drought-stricken nightmare. It is this weekend that already-weary eyes along the eastern seaboard will watch tropical storms that will bring more wind, more storms and more misery. It is this weekend that states like Pennsylvania will hope no lives are lost in flood waters as residents watch their dreams and hopes wash away.
It is this weekend that we need to do more than watch the 9-11 specials on cable. It is this weekend that our efforts need to be more than hanging that flag on the porch. It is this weekend that churches need to do more than add The Star Spangled Banner to their morning worship service. It is this weekend that we need to realize the call to act, to support, to go.
Over the course of the last several years, we have seen so many disaster strike this country, and yet, as our teams watched these disasters, the reality was always present that the support was not there to always respond.
Social media has become a great revealer.
We watch as our friends, our families and even some of our partners have posted continually disaster after disaster about how they "feel horrible", how their "hearts break" and how they "wish they could help", but yet the pleas for support go ignored. Please directed at those specific people...
Now, I realize not everyone can go. I realize not everyone can give. I also realize everyone knows someone.
Two weeks ago we received a call from a woman that has, for a full year, told us repeatedly she was putting together support efforts for our response teams... she called because she was finally caught up in a natural disaster and wanted to know if we were deploying and was requesting help. How were we to get there? We had the volunteers ready to go, but due to lack of support had no ability to deploy them...
One of our teams have been inundated with requests to respond to a ravaged area, but those requesting the deployment, when asked to assist us in finding housing when we arrived, seemed almost indignant because we asked.
One of our partnering organizations has never hesitated to call us around the clock to have us assist them in monitoring severe weather for them during deployments, but yet for 6 months we have awaited simple returned calls regarding our requests for help from them.
All this is to bring up a point.
While Chasing4Life is a wonderfully successful educational organization that provides life-saving educational programming across the United States, the Chasing4Life Disaster Response Teams are made up completely of volunteers. The gear carried and used by our members is paid for out-of-pocket or from companies that believe in giving back to their communities. Most of our members have jobs, families and other responsibilities just like everyone else, but everytime a disaster occurs or looms on the horizon, they call in, make themselves available, and then they wait... for you to help them use their training and passion.
And as to that training; these volunteers have become or are becoming highly trained responders because when not deploying, they are enrolled in courses, taking classes and attending training exercises.
As we enter this 9-11 Anniversary weekend and a weekend of service in Joplin, it is time to ask yourself: "What have I done to respond? What have I done to ensure that there are teams that will deploy when it happens to me? What have I done to help others go in my stead?
It doesn't have to be C4LDRT that you choose to assist, but it has to be something, somebody, some organization. To sit and watch events unfold day after day on the television without responding SOMEHOW is not how America was formed. It is not how it grew. It is not how lives were saved during Katrina. It was not how lives were saved during the 9-11 attacks. It was not how lives were changed in the Iowa floods.
Everyone can go somehow.

Are YOU ready for the ride of your life?

C4L announces new campaign in Dorothy tradition

Hudson, IA. Chasing4Life has become a leader in disaster preparedness education across the United States over the years and nobody will contend that we owe much of this growth and popularity to “Dorothy”.
For several years, Chasing4Life’s founder, Eddy Weiss, toured the country in Dorothy, a fully outfitted storm chase vehicle visiting hundreds of libraries, schools, churches and organizations with a message about disaster preparedness.
Three years ago this month, Dorothy was donated to the Sci-Tech Children’s Museum in Aurora, Illinois where she still continues to thrill and to teach.
The popularity of Dorothy and the connection that she made was incredible. Dorothy became an icon that was recognized by families across the country and the Chasing4Life office still receives letters for her every month.
2011 has been a year of disasters like none we have ever seen in the United States and many have referred to this year as “the ride of their life”. It has been statements like this that have inspired a new preparedness campaign to follow that of Dorothy’s.
Chasing4Life is excited to announce that in January of 2012, we will launch Chasing4Life’s “8 Seconds”. This new preparedness and training campaign will feature new programs with a new theme. You will see new instructors, a broadened scope of programming, and a tremendous increase in trainings for fire departments, emergency management agencies, law enforcement agencies and disaster response organizations.
Like the original Chasing4Life “Dorothy” campaign, this campaign will have its motorized spokesperson as well; our new Mobile Command Unit “8 Seconds”.
The campaign is inspired by how quickly lives were changed in 2011 and by the drama and popularity of rodeo; particularly bull riding.
“Our family has always loved the rodeo,” explained Weiss recently. “As the year progressed and we watched these disasters unfold, interviewed the victims and aided in recovery, we were overwhelmed at how fast lives were changed by disaster. It can all be gone in less time than it takes a rodeo star to win a buckle…less than 8 seconds!”
The new campaign will be themed around the “8 second ride” in bull riding.
“A bull rider is judged on many things, but it all comes down to their actions during that 8 second ride…and of course, they have to stay on the whole 8 seconds!” said Weiss.
“Disasters are often like that bull charging out of the chute,” he explains. “It is raw power, and it is just you against him at that point. It all comes down to how hard you have trained and how determined you are.”
The new campaign will feature the release of a special edition of the “Red Book”, a disaster preparedness guide that Chasing4Life has sold for the last two years. New DVD’s will be available as well as Chasing4Life will focus more on training programs for agencies and response teams as well.
At the center of it all?
The new Mobile Command Unit will begin to go through modifications over the next two months to make it a vehicle that rivals Dorothy according to Chasing4Life staff. This vehicle will be used by the Chasing4Life Disaster Response Team (C4LDRT) in disaster response deployments, but will also make special appearances at events, festivals, fairs, shows and conferences in the tradition of Dorothy’s travels.
The command unit will feature a rodeo theme and is a converted ambulance that will be used to set up and monitor disaster response operations, severe weather situations and mobile communications.
“We’ve got our boots on and we’re ready to ride,” stated Brandi Hodgen, the Chasing4Life coordinator that will operate the unit in the field. “We cannot wait to roll this out and start this new campaign. The message is great, the theme is great and we think the people will love it”.
Plans are being made to partner with new sponsors for the new campaign and the staff at Chasing4Life is already talking about new coloring books and the possibility of a music video as the campaign progresses into the new year.

Historic Nationwide Restoration Tour of National 9/11 Flag to end this September 11, 2011 in Joplin, Missouri

When 9/11 happened, it did not only happen in New York City, at the Pentagon, and in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

9/11 happened in America.

It is for that reason that The New York Says Thank You Foundation announced today that it will end its historic 50-state restoration tour of The National 9/11 Flag on September 11, 2011 in Joplin, Missouri –the site of one of the nation’s deadliest tornadoes in history which took the lives of 160 people and destroyed 40% of the town this past May 22.

“By going to Joplin with The National 9/11 Flag on the 10th

Anniversary of 9/11, we will be making a powerful statement that New Yorkers will never forget what people from small towns and big cities all across America did for us in our time of need,” stated Jeff Parness, founder of New York Says Thank You Foundation. “By letting the folks in Joplin place the final stitches in The National 9/11 Flag and by letting them heal this national treasure, it will make an historic statement that ‘we are all in this together’ and that the resilience and the compassion of the American people is so much greater than any act of terror or catastrophic act of nature.”

About The National 9/11 Flag

Destroyed in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks on September 11 and stitched back together seven years later by tornado survivors in Greensburg, Kansas, The National 9/11 Flag has become recognized as the modern day version of the Star Spangled Banner.

Over 200 Million Americans have experienced The National 9/11 Flag through national and local TV coverage, public displays in small town gatherings, and major cultural and sporting events. The flag has been stitched by soldiers and schoolchildren who survived the shooting at Ft. Hood, Texas, by WorldWar II veterans on the deck of the USS Missouri in Pearl Harbor, by the family of Martin Luther King Jr., by Members of Congress at the U.S. Capitol, and by thousands of everyday service heroes nationwide.

On President Lincoln’s Birthday, a piece of the flag that Abraham Lincoln was laid on when he was shot at Ford’s Theater was stitched into the fabric of The National 9/11 Flag. In May 2011, The National 9/11 Flag was presented as the official flag for The Kentucky Derby. On August 9, 2011 The National 9/11 Flag was stitched at the base of Mount Rushmore.

Currently on a journey across America through the 10th Year Anniversary of 9/11, the goal of The National 9/11 Flag Tour is to display this historic flag at leading venues nationwide, to empower local service heroes in all 50 states with the privilege of stitching the flag back to its original 13-stripe format, and to inspire 300 million Americans with the flag’s rich visual history in order to deepen our sense of citizenship and national pride and bolster the spirit of volunteerism on the 9/11 Anniversary and year-round. When complete, The National 9/11 Flag will become a part of the permanent collection of the National 9/11 Memorial Museum being built at the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan.

“Our hope and our prayer is that for generations to come, The National 9/11 Flag will tell the story of not just what happened on 9/11, but was also happened on 9/12 – when Americans came together to help one another recover from disaster. It is that spirit of humanity, kindness, and volunteerism that united us on 9/12 that we hope to celebrate in Joplin, Missouri this September 11,” added Parness.

SEPTEMBER 11, 2011 DISPLAY & STITCHING CEREMONY

The National 9/11 Flag will be displayed by Joplin first responders, local residents, and by disaster survivors from across the United States in a silent tribute at 8:58AM CST through 9:28AM CST at Cunningham Park at the corner of 26th Street & Maiden Lane in Joplin, Missouri. The two times correspond to the exact moments that the South Towers and North Towers of the World Trade Center collapsed. From there, The National 9/11 Flag will be processed to Leggett & Platt Auditorium on the campus of Missouri Southern State University where the flag will serve as the backdrop for a 9/11 Memorial Service beginning at 10:30AM. Following the Memorial Service the community will be invited to place the final stitches to repair The National 9/11 Flag at which point material from American flags that survived the Joplin tornado will be sewn into the fabric of The National 9/11 Flag. Stitching will be open to the public until 5:00PM.

It is with great pride that we can say Chasing4Life will be represented by some of its staff at this historic event. We will be posting pictures upon our return.

A Pandemic

The Spanish Influenza pandemic is the catastrophe against which all modern pandemics are measured. It is estimated that approximately 20 to 40 percent of the worldwide population became ill and that over 50 million people died.

When you think about the population at that time period in our history, 50 Million is an incredible amount of people. Heck, it is an incredible amount by today’s standards!

Between September 1918 and April 1919, approximately 675,000 deaths from the flu occurred in the U.S. alone.

Now, when we look at the records of this pandemic, we find that many died very quickly. These were the folks that perhaps already had an illness, were already susceptible for some reason, or just did nothing to protect themselves.

There were others, according to the records, who woke up feeling perfectly fine in the morning, became sick by nightfall and succumbed to the disease by nightfall. These were, by all rights, folks with no real strength, no real stamina. People that were not ready to fight.

Then there were the others… people who caught colds, got another form of the flu, or who had been trying to respond to the disaster and finally fell victims to the disease they were trying to stop.

Pandemics come in many forms. Throughout our history, we have had many; more than most people like to think about. There was this one, and then of course in 1957 we had the Asian Flu, then in 1968 the Hong Kong Flu, in ’76 Swine Flu came on scene, then in ’77 the Russian flu did its best. A few years ago, we started looking at chickens as if they were Al Qaeda… and it continues.

Are there other pandemics we don’t pay attention to?

I think so.

The word Pandemic is a Greek word.

“Pan” means ALL. “Demos”, where we get our word demographic, means PEOPLE. Therefore, the word PANDEMIC means ALL PEOPLE.

Let’s look at the beginning of the year.

On New Years Eve Day, tornadoes raked across Arkansas and into Illinois. Before noon, houses were destroyed, teams were deploying, and it was the last day of 2010. Nobody paid much attention. Sure, we knew it was happening, but really, it was a freak thing, right? We dismissed it like we would a light cough or slight sore throat.

As the next month began, the weather got worse. By Ground Hog’s Day we were sick of the blizzards, weary from the ice cold arctic blasts, and we had all seen the coverage of snow in the Gulf States. Now we paid a little more attention. It slowed things down, but not too much. We looked at it like the 24 hour flu…it came…it went. A bad, but short memory.

Now springtime came. We knew it was the “season”, and we even talked about it as we watched towns like Mapleton, Iowa get creamed. We started to think it was a lingering cough. Some of us thought of it like walking pneumonia… we wondered if it would get worse or if we could maybe work through it.

Then came Tuscaloosa. Then flooding. Dikes were blown. Levees failed. Then Joplin.

Joplin...

It seemed like pandemic! Every day there was more reports!

But alas, with the exception of a house here, a tree here, a flooded basement here, a county blown apart by a wind storm, the activity died down. And so did our concern and awareness.

Finally, the atmosphere was stable. The weather channel actually had regular programming for a week of days in a row! Greg Forbes went fishing. Think I am kidding? He posted it on his FaceBook.

We are relaxed. The pictures of Joplin are on Google, but at least not in our dreams and nightmares. The grass is green, but it is all that remains of the standing water. The temperatures are even okay here; I might clean out the gutters today.

But is it over?

There’s something you need to know about a pandemic…

They come in waves.

One of the notable characteristics of the pandemics we have had in this country is that they do not occur once. Like an earthquake, sometimes the aftershocks are worse than the initial quake.

The 1918 pandemic began with outbreaks of low mortality in the spring and summer, followed by a more lethal wave in the winter. This pattern has fueled speculation that the strains will undergo mutation that will create similar pandemics.

It is this mutation that leads to the emergence of more lethal versions of the original killers.

And so it might seem with this year’s weather threats.

Just as the temps began to fall. Just as we had time to clean out and organize the Chasing4Life Disaster Response trailer, the news came in…hurricane season is ramping up and everyone that is anyone is back at their desks trying to figure out just how bad it’s gonna get.

The next wave.

So much speculating occurs each day at conferences, in offices, in magazines, on television and elsewhere; is the weather changing?

Couldn’t tell you for sure, but my parents did not raise an idiot.

Did yours?

Where is your weather radio now? Did you ever get one? Was it left on this summer? Is it on now? Are you checking weather forecasts daily? Have you spent time with your family putting together a disaster plan and a home disaster kit? How’s the disaster plan for your pets coming along?

Have you invested in your own recovery? What I mean is, have you given of time or finance to response agencies or groups this year to make sure they can continue to respond to disasters?

Have you seen this year’s conditions change the way you think, live, spend, travel and plan?

Guess what folks. We have a disaster pandemic. Sure, it started out as random coughs and sneezes, but you have to admit, there are towns, cities and communities spread across the country on stretchers and cots now…

It ain’t over.

September is National Preparedness Month.

What will YOU do?