Recent events remind us that every community must make a continued investment in preparing for the next emergency or disaster. Empirical evidence has shown a direct correlation between the level of preparedness and the level of resiliency in a community. Specifically, the more prepared communities are, the greater their ability to effectively respond to and recover from a disaster and minimize the impact of a disaster. However, the most resilient communities go beyond simply developing a response plan that “checks the box” and supports it with periodic training and scenario-based exercises.