The results are in: How prepared are you for a natural disaster?

Here at CREDO, our hearts go out to everyone affected by the recent hurricanes in the Gulf and Northeast, as well as the wildfires that continue to rage in the West.

As climate change continues to intensify natural disasters, we all must be prepared for their effects. That’s why we teamed up with our allies and recent grantees Mercy Corps for a quick and informative quiz on disaster preparedness, including which kinds of emergency kits you should have ready and how much water you should keep on hand.

Roughly 3,000 CREDO members took the quiz — and here are the results.

Last month, CREDO members helped us distribute a portion of our monthly donation to help Mercy Corps respond to the world’s toughest challenges, provide immediate life-saving support to meet urgent needs of today and create opportunities to build community wellbeing for a stronger tomorrow.

Out of the 3,000 responses we received, only 13% scored a 100% — but that’s okay! Our quiz was not trying to measure knowledge and certainly wasn’t a competition; it was meant as a fun way to learn from the experts at Mercy Corps on how we can take preparations now to be ready for a disaster that might strike next. 

So without further ado, here are the answers to the quiz:

About how many natural disasters occur each year around the globe?

• 6,800

What are the most common natural disasters around the world?

• Floods

To be best prepared, which two types of emergency kits should you have on hand?

• Evacuation kit
• Sheltering in place kit

Which combination of items are essential to include in your emergency kits?

• Water, non-perishable food, first aid supplies

What are the three best locations to store an emergency kit?

• Home
• Work
• Car

Approximately how much water should you plan to store per person, per day?

• 1 Gallon

How many days-worth of supplies should you store in your emergency kit?

• 14 Days

Which disasters and emergencies has Mercy Corps responded to?

All of the above: 

• Nepal earthquake in 2015
• Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004
• Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas in 2019
• Hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa
• Ebola epidemic in Liberia and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
• COVID-19 pandemic across the globe

How many people received water, sanitation, and hygiene assistance from Mercy Corps in 2020?

• 12.3 million people

Who does Mercy Corps support in times of disaster?

• Families who lack access to basic resources like soap and water
• People who have been forced from their homes by violence and live in refugee camps
• Entire communities that have been destroyed by an earthquake or flood
• People who have been hit the hardest by disasters and need humanitarian support

We also asked which natural disasters concern our members the most, and 33% responded with “Pandemics, including COVID-19,” while 24.9% responded with “Wildfires” and 18% said “Power Failures.”

If you’d like to learn more about Mercy Corps’ critical work, please visit https://www.mercycorps.org/

And if you want to help us distribute our monthly donation to three amazing progressive nonprofit groups this September, vote today at CREDODonations.com.