If Katrina made one thing clear, it’s this: preparedness must go beyond a packed bag and a tank of gas. True readiness means ensuring you and your family have the essentials to survive until help arrives—or in some cases, until you can rebuild. That includes:
- Clean water and food that can last for several days
- First aid supplies for injuries and emergencies
- Essential medications with no external healthcare resources, any wound, allergic reaction, or unexpected illnesses could mean trouble
- A family emergency plan, so every member knows what to do when disaster strikes
Why Medical Readiness Is Often Overlooked
When most people prepare for hurricanes, wildfires, or other disasters, they think about food and flashlights—but not about access to medications. Yet during Katrina, pharmacies were destroyed, hospitals overwhelmed, and even people with simple medical needs found themselves in life-threatening situations for days and weeks after the storm made landfall. That’s where preparedness has to evolve. Having the right medications on hand obviously isn’t going to save everyone from the scale of devastation Katrina brought to New Orleans and the surrounding area, but we think it is an invaluable and mostly overlooked aspect of preparedness everyone should adopt.
Taking Action Today
Preparedness is not about living in fear—it’s about living with peace of mind. Sit down with your family and discuss your emergency safety plan. Identify how you’ll communicate if cell towers are down, where you’ll meet if separated, and how you’ll care for vulnerable loved ones.
And don’t overlook your medical readiness. At Survival Scripts, we’ve built medication kits designed to keep you covered in emergencies when professional help may not be immediately available. These kits ensure that your health is never the weak link in your overall preparedness plan.
Twenty years after Katrina, we owe it to ourselves and our families to take those hard-learned lessons and turn them into action. Preparedness isn’t optional—it’s survival.
