by Bella Ogurek, SMACC Analyst
A Brief History
National Preparedness Month occurs every year during September where it aims to bring awareness to the public on planning for disasters and other emergencies. September was declared preparedness month due to 9/11 being in September, and became official in 2004 under FEMA’s (Federal Emergency Management Agency) Ready Campaign. “Ready” is a public service campaign under FEMA that educates and brings awareness to planning for disasters and that they can happen at any time. It encourages people to stay prepared and make a plan.
During the month of September, several states were preparing for Hurricane Ian. Here is an example of a post by Readygov on Twitter of what they promote during National Preparedness Month.
ReadyGov Topics and Hashtags
From my data gathered, I found the most common topics that were discussed on the @Readygov Twitter from September 1st to 30th. From there, I ran the results in a topic modeling script in R to get the graph below.
Here is a list of the most discussed topics from Readygov’s Twitter posts that I see from the above chart…
- Prepare (kids) for disasters
- Emergency kits
- Hurricane Fiona and IAN
- Emergency alerts
- Flooding
- Power outages and generator/food safety
- Pet safety
- Storms
- Hazards
Along with finding the most discussed topics, I also found other hashtags that @Readygov was using throughout September. The chart below demonstrates the top hashtags used by @ReadyGov on Twitter with the top two being #fiona and #ian.
Findings
I found the top three hashtags to be hurricane-related considering the timing of Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Fiona. ReadyGov used these events to especially focus on hurricane and flood safety during national preparedness month. Considering these findings, I was interested in finding whether in previous years, ReadyGov also posted about preparedness related to current issues.
2021 Findings
I found that in September of 2021, ReadyGov posted about wildfires in California as well as Hurricanes and tropical storms including Ida, Nicholas, Mindy, and Larry, and the flooding that came along with them. The top hashtags for Preparedness Month 2021 are shown below.
Below is an example of what one of these posted looked like using #Nicholas while also advocating for preparedness by explaining how to get emergency alerts.
2020 Findings
In September of 2020, I found that the wildfires where occurring in the Western states and @Readygov posted often about preparedness for wildfires. When looking at hashtag statistics, I found that #Sally was the most used hashtag for the month.
Here is a sample tweet from @Readygov that uses a current disaster to promote preparedness and inform.
When looking at all of the data, I see the importance of sharing preparedness tips more than usual about of posting amount during a disaster. Not only will it happen people prepare for the disaster occurring in the moment, but it also is when people will listen to preparedness. Some tend to ignore preparedness until it is too late, but by explaining to turn on emergency alerts, make an emergency kit, and other tips, people are ready for when these disasters occur.