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They have been my core champions, all ten of them! It is hard to describe how our family values of perseverance, excellence, integrity and humor have carried me to this end point. I think of all of you with a warm smile, a belly laugh and tears of gratitude for your support.We have shared it all.iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have been surrounded by supportive communities of family, friends, faculty, and professional colleagues in this endeavor over these many years. It has required patience and ongoing support from all the communities as I have attempted to complete this course of study and maintain a work life that has had to keep pace with disasters, regulatory changes, decreases in Congressional funding and everything that is involved with emergency preparedness and response.My first acknowledgement is to Dr. Rod Barber for his leadership, commitment and integrity in everything that he does. Dr. Barber introduced me to the Kent School in 1991 when I was making a dramatic shift in the direction of my life. In addition, his example and support created an environment that challenged ways to look at ideas and theories that give credence to our work together and this study. In these events, individual long term care facilities and local/state responders rely even more so on good planning (Bolton & Zimmerman, 2007;Waxman et al., 2017).Emergency responses need to be based on sound plans that are pre-tested using exercises organized and facilitated by community partners that include first responders. The lessons learned by the research about solid decision-making for shelter-in-place or evacuation decisions are just as important in no-notice events as hurricane emergencies.