Resiliency in the Face of Disaster and Terrorism: 10 Things to Do to Survive

by V. Alex Kehayan, Ed.D. and Joseph C. Napoli, M.D.

    Those of you who didn’t participate in the Homeland Security Teleconference on November 29, 2005, missed an excellent detailed presentation by PNC Paul Bernstein on what must be done in prior preparation in the event of an episode of natural or intended terrorism crisis. He reviewed how you need to handle the substantive needs of your family and how to provide for your family’s survival in the aftershock.

     Curious when you realize that so much of what he presented related to the ordinary everyday activities and needs, such as getting gas or getting cash out of an ATM, which we all accept as normal without giving a second thought to them. Equally as important is that we must also contend wit the reaction by the family and its natural effect on the fears and traumas which result from the crisis.

    Now I really am not a fan of do-it-yourself or Dummy books since they sometimes are equally as confusing as though they were written by the same people who write the manuals which I can’t understand to begin with.

     In the book Resiliency in the Face of Disaster and Terrorism, the personal and private aspects of the tragedy are explored with defined approaches written simply for you to understand—sort of what they call “user friendly.” While you must prepare for home material requirements, you must also have the ability to respond to the personal traumas created by the crisis. There is an absolute requirement to understand what knowledge you should have before the event and not merely after, when you also may find yourself in need of the same emotional necessities which you seek to provide for your family and others calling for a liberation from fear and the development of an ability to perform adequately in the home and the community during the aftershock.

     What makes this book informative is that you don’t have to wade through a lot of writing. It contains many easy-to-read outlines, charts, and bullet types of listings.

    The book promotes that survival with knowledge is the real basis of survival. You must know how to react and how to control not only the material aspects of life, but must also have the ability to recognize and handle the emotional survival aspects. Otherwise, fear will take control; anarchy will prevail, and we may all find ourselves facing a total or partial dissolution of the family without attaining a real survival leading to a possibility of recovery. This book provides you with an opportunity to develop such understanding.

Published by Personhood Press, 208 pp, October 2005, ISBN 1-932181-18-0, $14.95