Regional emergency planners unveiled an ad campaign Tuesday aimed at encouraging residents to collect what they call the three most important survival supplies ? water, a radio and a flashlight ? which could get them through the first three days of a disaster.
More than 2.5 million residents of Baltimore City and Annapolis, as well as Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties will see the “Ready? Set? Good” message in TV, radio and print ads running until the end of the year, officials said at a kick-off event. The ads are simple, using short sentences like “Emergencies tend to turn supplies into a demand,” and graphics of the items.
“The problem was, since 9/11, there has been so much information flowing,” said Elise Armacost, a Baltimore County spokeswoman and co-chair of a Baltimore Urban Area Work Group subcommittee that organized the campaign. “They?re overwhelmedwith supply lists and to-do lists. So they tune out and do nothing.”
The Baltimore UAWG, a regional organization of emergency planners that allocates federal funding, commissioned the Johns Hopkins University to study residents in the metropolitan area. The study revealed less than a quarter of respondents feel prepared to handle a disaster and only 60 percent have supplies assembled, said Jim Williams, associate director of the university?s Center for Communications Program. Others might have supplies but, for example, don?t know if batteries have been moved to children?s video games or if their bottled water is too old to drink, he said.
Williams said the three items will prompt residents to consider other items they will need in an emergency and lessen the burden on first responders, allowing them to focus on more urgent matters.
Baltimore?s UAWG spent $200,000 in federal homeland security money on the campaign, which includes 380 TV commercials, 17 newspaper ads and several radio and Web site spots. The Baltimore Metropolitan Council, a collaboration of elected executives from each jurisdiction, organized the partnership.
“Hurricane season is coming,” said Anne Arundel County Executive Janet Owens. “Get those three basic items because it will probably take 72 hours for the government to reach everyone in a crisis.”
