Editing Civil defense (section)

=== Preparation ===

Preparation consists of building [[blast shelter]]s and pre-positioning information, supplies, and emergency infrastructure. For example, most larger cities in the U.S. now have underground emergency operations centers that can perform civil defense coordination. FEMA also has many underground facilities for the same purpose located near major railheads such as the ones in [[Denton, Texas]] and [[Mount Weather]], Virginia.

Other measures would include continual government inventories of grain silos, the [[Strategic National Stockpile]], the uncapping of the [[Strategic Petroleum Reserve (United States)|Strategic Petroleum Reserve]], the dispersal of lorry-transportable bridges, water purification, mobile refineries, mobile de-contamination facilities, mobile general and special purpose disaster mortuary facilities such as [[Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team]] (DMORT) and [[DMORT-WMD]], and other aids such as temporary housing to speed civil recovery.

On an individual scale, one means of preparation for exposure to [[nuclear fallout]] is to obtain [[potassium iodide]] (KI) tablets as a safety measure to protect the human [[thyroid]] gland from the uptake of dangerous radioactive [[iodine]]. Another measure is to cover the nose, mouth and eyes with a piece of cloth and sunglasses to protect against [[alpha particle]]s, which are only an internal hazard.

To support and supplement efforts at national, regional and local level with regard to disaster prevention, the [[wikt:preparedness|preparedness]] of those responsible for civil protection and the intervention in the event of disaster
* To establish a framework for effective and rapid cooperation between different civil protection services when mutual assistance is needed (police, [[fire service]], [[healthcare]] service, [[public utility]] [[wikt:provider|provider]], voluntary agencies)
* To set up and implement training programs for intervention and coordination teams as well as assessment experts including joint courses and exchange systems
* To enhance the coherence of actions undertaken at international level in the field of civil protection, especially in the context of cooperation

Preparing also includes sharing information:
* To contribute to informing the public, in view of increasing citizens' level of self-protection
* To collect and disseminate validated emergency information
* To pool information on national civil protection capabilities, military and medical resources
* To ensure efficient information sharing between the different authorities