Commonground
Senior Moderator
[emphasis is mine]
Sep 21, 2025
Raising public awareness and encouraging individual preparedness are essential to building a resilient society in the face of natural disasters and geopolitical challenges, experts said at a Presidential Office forum yesterday.
“It’s about raising the awareness [that] all households, all citizens ... have to be able to take care of themselves” during emergencies, Finnish National Emergency Supply Agency Director Aki Laiho said.
Laiho emphasized the need for people to take responsibility for their own preparedness, highlighting Finland’s “72-hour concept” that urges households to stock enough food and key supplies to survive at home for at least three days without relying on outside services.
“Everybody needs to be able to take care of themselves and the family and the people near them for a while,” and should only call the government in when “critical services get interrupted,” he said.
Hawaii Emergency Management Agency Administrator James Barros echoed the same view, adding that “getting our citizens to understand that” was difficult.
“I can tell the families that aren’t ready for a natural disaster. They’re the ones that run to the store, and they buy toilet paper and rice, and that’s it. That’s their get-ready for a disaster,” Barros said.
He said that in Hawaii, where 95 percent of food arrives by ship from the US mainland on five-to-seven-day journeys, authorities urge residents to stockpile two weeks of supplies, including food, water, power sources and medicine.
continued: https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2025/09/21/2003844172
Sep 21, 2025
Raising public awareness and encouraging individual preparedness are essential to building a resilient society in the face of natural disasters and geopolitical challenges, experts said at a Presidential Office forum yesterday.
“It’s about raising the awareness [that] all households, all citizens ... have to be able to take care of themselves” during emergencies, Finnish National Emergency Supply Agency Director Aki Laiho said.
Laiho emphasized the need for people to take responsibility for their own preparedness, highlighting Finland’s “72-hour concept” that urges households to stock enough food and key supplies to survive at home for at least three days without relying on outside services.
“Everybody needs to be able to take care of themselves and the family and the people near them for a while,” and should only call the government in when “critical services get interrupted,” he said.
Hawaii Emergency Management Agency Administrator James Barros echoed the same view, adding that “getting our citizens to understand that” was difficult.
“I can tell the families that aren’t ready for a natural disaster. They’re the ones that run to the store, and they buy toilet paper and rice, and that’s it. That’s their get-ready for a disaster,” Barros said.
He said that in Hawaii, where 95 percent of food arrives by ship from the US mainland on five-to-seven-day journeys, authorities urge residents to stockpile two weeks of supplies, including food, water, power sources and medicine.
continued: https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2025/09/21/2003844172