LANSING, Mich (WLNS) — In 2023 American Red Cross officials said there have been 23 different billion-dollar disasters – including extreme heat across the county and devastating tornados across the midwest and Michigan.
Trevor Riggen, President of Humanitarian Services at the American Red Cross said disasters in the United States and across the world have become a chronic threat. “You know 10-15 years ago disasters were an acute problem where we saw breaks between large scale or intense disasters in our county; they’re happening almost every day now – and the risk is spread in almost every single community,” Riggen said.
With it being natural preparedness month, the Red Cross is encouraging community support and family planning to keep the resiliency of communities across the country. “It’s so critical to be prepared. The forecasting is strong, the planning is strong in most communities, but sometimes mother nature doesn’t listen,” Riggen said.
According to Riggen, a few ways families can be resilient to mother nature is to sit down with family and get prepared, to have an immediate emergency supply kit – including water and prescriptions, to have a plan and to stay informed.
He also said to get engaged, visit redcross.org to be a part of its efforts, and make a blood donation. “It’s important to note that the climate crisis is this repetitive impact, so it’s not just this one disaster with the tornadoes that happened two weeks ago, but there have been floods, high heat that the state of Michigan is seeing and that continuous and repetitive impact is pushing on the resilience of households,” Riggen said.
Riggen said the time is now to get prepared and join them in their mission because forecasting is strong, and planning is strong in most communities, but sometimes Mother Nature doesn’t listen.
