We have welcomed in the new year, and some of us are keeping our resolutions in the forefronts of our minds, while others of us have already said goodbye to our good intentions — or never made resolutions at all. But there is one resolution many of us should make — and stick to, this year and beyond: to become better prepared for disasters, particularly earthquakes.

Islanders are fortunate to have VashonBePrepared on the island, which has worked for years to bolster the island’s ability to respond to emergencies. We are better off because of their work, but they can only do so much. The rest is up to us.

In the middle of this newspaper is a guide to help all of us meet the challenges of being the most prepared we can be, not just for earthquakes, but for a range of emergencies and stressful events, including winter storms. VashonBePrepared has sponsored the guide, and it is full of useful information. We encourage you to read it, absorb the information and then bolster your own preparedness efforts. You can choose to break your to-do list into small pieces, tackling one at a time. Are you short on water? Buy a case the next time you are at the store. The recommendation is one gallon per person per day for as little as three days, but ideally 10 days to two weeks. How about food? Adding a couple cans of food to your grocery trips will bring real progress soon. What about out-of-area contacts? Are they up to date as part of a family communication plan? That, too, takes little time to tend to and could prove extremely important some distant day in the future — or today for all we know.

Just two summers ago, the island took part in the multi-day Cascadia Rising drill in preparation for a large quake. One of the lessons then was just how cut off the island is — and how much we will have to take care of ourselves.

VashonBePrepared’s current president, Vicky de Monterey Richoux, addresses this issue in the guide.

“The truth is chances are slim that anyone will be coming anytime soon to rescue you and your family, or to bring you food and water,” she wrote.

So let’s put the last of procrastinations aside and do this together. Let’s print out some of those checklists and work on crossing all the items off the list, one by one.

With luck, we will never have to put our preparations to use, but we will be better off — as will our families, friends and neighbors — if we resolve to be truly prepared this year.