Be Prepared
- The Happy Meemaw
- Jun 11
- 3 min read
Being a child of the pre-internet communication era is no big deal, since there are lots of us out there, but I like to think my family was a little ahead of the curve. We liked to be in the know. We had police scanners. We had Citizens Band (CB) radios. We poured over the local newspaper, the St. Louis newspaper, and the network news and weather we received on our 3-channel, pre-cable TV.
I especially remember sitting with my paternal grandmother on Saturday night sleepovers and listening to the scanner while munching on glazed donuts heated in the toaster oven and slathered with butter, and catching multiple weather casts before we went to sleep. We knew how to party in the Midwest.
I also experienced my share of severe thunderstorms and tornados as a kid (and here in Virginia), and have experienced some severe hurricanes, as well as ridden out multiple California earthquakes over the years.
When I started planning my podcast, I made a list of over 100 people/topics I wanted to explore, and Robert J. Fagan was on that list.
My friend Rob has been in my world since high school. We are both 1982 graduates of Mt. Vernon Township High School in Southern Illinois. My husband chose the Navy and Rob chose the Army, and even though we were worlds away, we’ve kept in touch all these years and remain good friends.
Rob has been all over the world in both his military and civilian careers, and in the latter, he has spent thousands of hours training personnel in our country as well as others to be prepared in emergency situations. I was happy to give him a forum for the wealth of info he has to share, because it affects all of us, no matter where we live.
I’m posting our disaster prep conversation today and will post our hurricane preparedness convo later this month, as hurricane season officially began on June 1. While everyday disaster preparedness is essential, many of us are now on point for the 2025 hurricane season. Even if you don’t live in an area regularly affected by hurricanes, you could be impacted by the response of residents of other states, or by residual weather associated with hurricanes – see Western North Carolina/Eastern Tennessee after a hurricane that crippled the Florida Gulf Coast.
Be sure to involve your children and grandchildren in all of this preparation – situations become less scary or stressful when kids know they’ve helped their family prepare. Choose specific duties for them in preparation and during an event, something to help them focus and distract from their concern. Explain why it’s important that your family prepares and ask if they have questions. Endeavor to find kid-friendly information from our disaster preparedness agencies that will help them learn and understand. When they help, they’re also more likely to share with others what they’ve learned, and that could make a difference in the preparation taken by other families.
Rob is a fantastic dude and I’m not exaggerating when I say his experience and training is second to none. He is in the process of becoming a published author and I look forward to helping promote what he’s written.
We reference the state of Virginia in these episodes, but visit your local state’s emergency management and disaster preparedness sites and identify resources that are convenient for you and your family.
Suggested sites:
FEMA Ready
Do 1 Thing
Red Cross Preparedness
Stop the Bleed Coalition
DHS Stop the Bleed
DHS Until Help Arrives
Listen to our Disaster Preparedness conversation here:
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