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New Hampshire Among Best Prepared for Emergencies

NH Live Free or Die Granite Marker

In this day and age, it's somewhat comforting to know that I live in a state that's highly rated for emergency preparedness. New Hampshire was rated as one of fourteen states that could "adequately handle pandemic crisis", in a report just released, "Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health from Disease, Disasters, and Bioterrorism".

While nice to know my home state is rated highly, I truly hope we never have to find out just how well we'd perform with any major public health emergencies!

The Trust for America's Health rated each state in the country on ten different categories. The 10 key indicators used to rank each state were:

ability to distribute strategic emergency medical supplies from national stockpile
ability to buy and distribute statewide antiviral medicines
biological testing capabilities through public health labs for 24 hour coverage
workforce surge preparedness
use of a statewide pandemic or bio-surveillance system
statewide health-care volunteer liability protection during emergencies
emergency preparedness drills
community resiliency by way of increasing or maintaining flu vaccine rates
funding commitment to public health budgets

NH Lake

Seven states were considered to be sufficiently and adequately prepared for emergencies and disaster on all 10 indicators. Ten states rated highly on 9 of the components. New Hampshire fell into this group. The one thing that prevented NH from attaining a 'perfect score' was that it doesn't use a surveillance system that's compatible with the Federal Electronic Disease Surveillance System. We have the system, but all the bugs haven't been sufficiently worked out as yet, so it's not completely on-line at this point.

Despite the clear improvements around the country, the report showed that there are still critical areas in the country's emergency preparedness programs that require major work.

To view the entire 124 page report, you can download it here ---> Emergency Preparedness Report

Some other results that came out of this report:

54% of Americans think our country was safer prior to 9/11/01;
60% of Americans feel their communities could not adequately respond to a Katrina-like disaster;
90% of Americans would willingly stay home should a pandemic flu outbreak occur.

If you're a New Hampshire resident, or are thinking about making NH your home (primary or secondary), it's nice to know the great strides our state has made in being prepared for emergencies should it be needed.

I love living here in Portsmouth NH, and if you'd like to make the Seacoast NH Maine areas your new home, I'd ready to help you do just that. Portsmouth NH Homes and Portsmouth NH Condos - we've got something for everyone here to call your home!!

Ann Cummings
RE/MAX Coast to Coast
Portsmouth NH
   ann@anncummings.com
888-349-5678 x 3839
Servicing the Coastal Areas of NH & Southern Maine                     REALTOR

Posted by Portsmouth NH Homes Condos - Ann Cummings New Hampshire REALTOR® on 12/19/2007 01:25 PM

Comments (14)

new hampshire, portsmouth nh homes, portsmouth nh condos, nh maine seacoast

This post has been included in New Hampshire Information

14 Comments on New Hampshire Among Best Prepared for Emergencies

DEC

2007

Now that is something to be proud of. There are just so many places we can go on this island :)

This is important info Ann, thanks. Hopefully other states will step up and take heed of New Hampshire's strides.

Yeah, yeah, this is awesome. Where's the food? :)

Ann - what a wonderful accomplishment for your state. This is something all of the people in New Hampshire should be proud of.

Makes me feel a little better. But NH has always been ahead of the pack so this does not surprise me at all.

NH is a great place to live!!!

Sally - we are proud it, and as Monika said, on many things, NH does seem to be ahead of the pack. Sometimes it surprises us, many times it doesn't. We're a little state up in New England that many just seem to forget about - but that's okay with us. We love it here all the same!!

Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
Ann

Hey Jason! From what I read in that report, most states have made improvements, some more than others, and still more improvements need to be made. Hopefully the states will continue to step up to the plate and keep moving forward. Many of the improvements that need to be made are budget-constricted, so their hands are tied until voters and/or their legislators put the necessary funding in place to keep moving forward.

Thanks for reading!

MWA! Still...
Ann

Dena - ooops, I guess I do oftentimes have pictures of food and/or mention food, don't I? I bring it on again in another post soon, just for you!! ;-) Lobster.......

Linda - it is great to be rated that highly on something so important as those indicators. Now if we could just get that last one ironed out, we'd be a perfect "10"!!

Monika - I'm with you on this ranking - I wasn't really surprised to find we're that rated like that. Get that federal surveillance system up and running, and we're good to go!

Thanks for the comments!! Much appreciated!
Ann

I really believe that we are a lot safer than prior 9/11. I believe that Homeland Security and the President have to fight Congress for everything that makes us safer, like listening to the telephones of the ones who would chop off all our heads or drop a nuclear bomb on NYC.

Of course, I believe that Homeland Security and the President make sure that their special interests benefit greatly from the preparation that makes us safe.

But, then, I'm a cynic.

Hi Lenn - I agree with you and I have to think we're much safer now than we were before. We're much more aware, and so many safeguards are in place now than ever before. One of the things this report went back to numerous times was the funding and how that needs to be made available for the things each state still needs to work on.

Thanks for stopping by!
Ann

Hi Ann,

Interesting post, I clicked over on your link and only got through a few pages. I'll check it out again for my state. I'm sorry to say I think to many of us expect the goverment to rescue us, but we know now that won't happen. I'm prepared somewhat myself, but probably not enough. Thanks for the good info.

DEC

2007

in my life i only remember one major hurricane in good olde dova. i was about 4 or 5. that ould put it back somewhere around 56/57 (a good year for chevy's)

i like the weather report 27 with flurrys.

Merry Christmas!

Great post! Can we borrow the folks from NH to come to Georgia to dal with our drought?

DEC

2007

Hi Lynda - there are a lot of pages to go through, and I found it to be interesting reading! I don't think, no matter how well a state ranks on this report, that we'll ever be completely prepared for whatever might come our way. We can just keep on improving, and hoping the worst never comes to fruition.

Hey Jay - "Dova", ayh that's just up the road a piece..... Ah, but did you see the forecast for the next few days - ABOVE freezing! ;-)

Hi Jim - give it a whirl and see what they can do for you! I know you all are in a terrible situation with your lack of water. I watch the reports on that, and it's kinda scary, to say the least. I wish you much-needed rain for your Christmas down there.

Thanks for the comments!
Ann

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