Disaster Preparedness among Active Duty Personnel, Retirees, Veterans, and Dependents

With the increase in natural and manmade disasters, preparedness remains a vital area of concern. Despite attempts by government and non-government agencies to stress the importance of preparedness, national levels of preparedness remain unacceptably low. A goal of commands and installations is to ensure that US Navy beneficiaries are well prepared for disasters. This especially is critical in active service members to meet mission readiness requirements in crisis settings.

To evaluate active duty Navy personnel, dependents, veterans, and retirees regarding disaster preparedness status.

The authors conducted an anonymous 29-question survey for US Navy active duty, dependents, veterans, and retirees of the Greater San Diego Region (California, USA) evaluating actual basic disaster readiness as determined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) standards of 3-day minimum supply of emergency stores and equipment. Descriptive statistics and regression analysis were used to analyze data.

One thousand one hundred and fifty surveys were returned and analyzed. Nine hundred and eight-three were sufficiently complete for logistic regression analysis with 394 responding "Yes" to having a 72-hour disaster kit (40.1%) while 589 had "No" as a response (59.9%).

The surveyed population is no more prepared than the general public, though surveyed beneficiaries overall are at an upper range of preparedness. Lower income and levels of education were associated with lack of preparedness, whereas training in disaster preparedness or having been affected by disasters increased the likelihood of being adequately prepared. Unlike results seen in the general public, those with chronic health care needs in the surveyed population were more, rather than less, likely to be prepared and those with minor children were less likely, rather than more likely, to be prepared. Duty status was assessed and only veterans were emphatically more probable than most to be prepared.