Most Americans feel they are ready to face an unexpected event or a catastrophic natural disaster.

Yet, according to the 2009 Preparedness in America Survey by Citizen Corps:

60% of Americans plan to rely on emergency first responders in the first 72 hours following an emergency.  Lessons learned following major catastrophes demonstrated that uniformed emergency responders only constitute one percent of the population, making it imperative that citizens can care for themselves in the days following an emergency.

58% of Americans do not know their community’s evacuation route.

78% of Americans have not conducted a home evacuation drill, even though home fires occur every 80 seconds and kill more Americans every year than all natural disasters combined.