Do you know how many disaster types there are? You can probably name the most common disaster types such as tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and a few more. But would you believe me if I told you that there are over 50 disaster types, even more than that if you check out some lists on the Internet. Check out the ‘short list’ of disasters below! With so many disasters potentially impacting you and your family, you’ve got to be thinking, “How in the world am I going to protect myself, my family and everything I own?”

Well there is some good news about all of those disaster types. There are only two ways to prepare for all 50+ disaster types and those two preparation strategies can be put in place by most families within a few days or even in a few hours for some! If a family has a ‘shelter-in-place’ plan and an evacuation plan, your family is in the minority. According to the website Ready.gov only 25% of all Americans are prepared for disasters. Are you prepared or are you part of the 75% of Americans that are not prepared? All you need to do is to take a look at some of these disaster types listed below and ask yourself, “Is my family ready to deal with any or some of these disasters?”.

• Earthquakes
• Tornadoes
• Hurricanes and cyclones
• Forest fires
• Thunderstorms, lightning, hail storms
• Tsunami
• Volcano
• Landslides and mudslides
• Floods, flash floods, tidal surge, rain storm damage
• Water control structure or dam or levee failure
• Drought
• Snow, ice, hail, sleet or arctic freeze
• Windstorm, dust storm or high winds
• Extreme temperature (hot or cold)
• Lightning strikes (with fire following)
• Food born illness
• Pandemic, infectious disease, communicable disease (Avian flu, H1N1, etc.)
• Utility interruption or failure (electrical power, water, gas or steam leak, air conditioning or heating interruptions)
• Environmental related hazards (pollution control, sewage, air quality, or other critical infrastructure failures)
• Hazardous material spill or release
• Nuclear power plant incident
• Explosion or fire or smoke damage
• Broken water pipes, loss of water supply or drain blockage
• Transportation incident
• Building or structure collapse
• Entrapment and/or rescue (machinery, confined space incident, water rescue)
• Transportation incidents (motor vehicle, railroad, watercraft, aircraft, pipeline)
• Robbery, theft, vandalism, break-ins
• Lost person, child abduction, kidnap, extortion, hostage incident, workplace violence
• Demonstration, civil disturbance, labor strike, police action
• Bomb threat or suspicious package
• Terrorism
• Access to building or physical security compromised
• Embezzlement
• Sabotage, cyber crime, data theft or destruction