preparedness movement
n. A movement that encourages people to always be prepared for emergencies caused by natural or technological disasters.
Examples
1999
James Talmage Stevens, a San Antonio-based guru for the nation's preparedness movement and author of Getting by With the Basics, says scores of companies selling food driers, disaster supplies, generators and emergency lamps are going belly up.
—“It's preparedness firms, not computers, being hit by Y2K catastrophe,” The Associated Press State & Local Wire, September 20, 1999
1999
The Connecticut-based GartnerGroup, recently said 90 percent of millennium bug problems should be corrected within three days of Jan. 1, 2000—but advised individuals to keep two weeks' salary in cash on hand and a five-day supply of food, medicine and fuel. The American Red Cross recently recommended that people keep a week of disaster supplies and extra cash. The Y2K preparedness movement that began with survivalists and militia types, has gone mainstream.
—“Believers prepare for tribulation of 2000,” The Patriot Ledger, January 02, 1999
1998 (earliest)
Weyandt says he thinks men like Harris are part of a growing movement of Americans who believe their country is in great danger. He falls short of saying we are riding hell-bent for Armageddon, but listen carefully and you might better understand the essence of the preparedness movement.
—John L. Smith, “Suspect in anthrax case a boon to one little shop of surival,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, February 22, 1998
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