Preparing for disaster.

• Author: Christensen, Lisa
• Position: Utah Business Insider: PODCAST SERIES

Utah has a lot of great geographical features: rugged mountains and canyons, wide valleys, rivers and lakes. Unfortunately, it also has one less than great geographical feature: a sizable fault line that runs through the middle of the state north to south.

The ever-living threat of a massive earthquake is a good enough reason to keep a 72-hour kit on hand, but being prepared for the unexpected is a good idea for more than just natural disasters. Wade Mathews, program manager for BE READY UTAH with the Division of Emergency Management, talked to Utah Business' Lisa Christensen on a recent episode of UB Insider with some tips on how to prepare for the worst--or just the next time there's a power outage.

Be Ready Utah offers a number of services for helping people get ready for major earthquakes, housefires, seasonal flooding and other unforeseen emergencies. They do trainings for groups and reach out to communities through events and fairs.

"We want people to be aware of the protective actions. If you don't know how to survive the disaster, the rest of our plans don't really matter. So the protective actions are so important for getting through the disasters. And there are different types of protective actions for the different types of hazards that we face," Mathews said.

Many of those actions are whittled down to easy-to-remember phrases. For earthquakes, that phrase is "Drop, Cover and Hold On"--or, go underneath something sturdy such as a wall that has no glass, or a sturdy desk or table, cover your head and neck with your arms or hands, and keep doing that until the shaking stops.

For flooding, remember "Turn Around, Don't Drown, Go to Higher Ground"--in other words, face rushing waters so as to keep from getting caught by a sudden rush of floodwaters, keep out of deep water, and go to high ground until the waters go down. Lightning, one of the biggest causes of death by natural causes in Utah, gets its own self-explanatory phrase, too: "When Thunder Roars, Go Indoors."

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