"Definition: activities necessary to build, sustain, and improve readiness capabilities to prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from natural or man-made incidents. Extended Definition: activities and measures designed or undertaken to prepare for or minimize the effects of a natural or man-made hazard upon the civilian population, to deal with the immediate emergency conditions that would be created by the hazard, and to effectuate emergency repairs to, or the emergency restoration of, vital utilities and facilities destroyed or damaged by the hazard; is a continuous operationally focused process for establishing guidelines, protocols, and standards for planning, training and exercises, personnel qualification and certification, equipment certification, and publication management. Annotation: Preparedness is a continuous process involving efforts at all levels of government and between government and private sector and nongovernmental organizations to identify threats, determine vulnerabilities, and identify required resources to prevent, respond to, and recover from major incidents. Preparedness refers to the existence of plans, procedures, policies, training, and the resources and equipment necessary at the Federal, State, local and tribal level to maximize the ability to prevent, respond to, and recover from incidents". (DHS, Lexicon, 2007, p. 19-20)