Sacramento may not be New York or Mexico city, but it can get crowded and the flu can spread quickly. As summer nears, H1N1, also known as swine flu or Mexican flu, is expected to die down before returning in the fall--possibly stronger than it is now.

Health officials are eyeing similarities between the 1918 Spanish Flu, which killed between 20 and 100 million people, and H1N1 in order to learn more about the path H1N1 might take.

Like H1N1, the Spanish flu began in the spring as a new and relatively mild flu but died out as summer arrived. When fall and flu season returned, it turned deadlier. Like H1N1, it's descendant, young adults were targeted by the disease thanks to their healthy immune systems because of a potentially fatal immune system reaction called a 'cytokine storm'.

While no one can predict how dangerous H1N1 might be when it returns in fall--if it does as it is expected to--and we are vastly more equipped to deal with a pandemic now, the best we can do is to prepare for the worst and hope for the best, as governments around the world have been doing.

If H1N1 does disappear with summer's arrival, it would be too easy to forget about it and not prepare for it's possible return in the fall. While it may return just as dangerous as any other flu (normal flus kill over 1,000 people in the United States a week, usually the very young, very weak and very old), the summer may provide a unique opportunity for families, individuals and communities to consider how prepared they are.

Preparedness for any emergency, disaster, or unforseen event should be vital in every family. You never know when you may lose your job, need supplies immediately and not have time for a run to the store, or when you might not feel comfortable going to crowded stores.

Here's what you can do to prepare not just for H1N1 but for any emergency over the summer:

• Slowly stock up food, water and medicine. Every family should have a 3-month supply of what they need, always, period. To slowly work towards your goal, put aside $5 a week and spend it on at least one item. Rice, gallons of water, disinfectant, goggles (viruses can be transmitted through the eyes) and N95 flu masks are must haves. You can try buying in bulk to save money.
• Educate yourself. Learn what the WHO pandemic levels mean - they're not panic levels.
• Learn the symptoms of flu and H1N1. Fever, coughing, sweating, vomiting, pneumonia, diarrhea are some reported symptoms. Fever, rashes, swelling and redness may indicate a potentially deadly cytokine storm. If you have an iPhone or an iTouch, you may want to invest in iTriage, which can take symptoms and produce possible answers.
• Get into the habit of washing your hands regularly and not touching your face anymore. Learning this habit on demand is hard. Better to get you and your family in the habit over the summer.
• Drink lots of water. You'd be surprised how dehydrated most Americans are, despite having plenty of access to water. Dehydration can weaken you and when a flu hits the last thing you want to be is already dehydrated.
• Excercise can help you fight off viruses and make you stronger, besides all of the other obvious reasons for excercising.
• Find out your workplace's and your children's school's policies and plans regardling influenza. Find out ahead of time if and how you can work from home in the event you or your child gets sick.
• Stay home if you feel sick. Stay home if you feel sick. Stay home if you feel sick. If you think your employer or school might not let you, find out ahead of time...and tell on them! The CDC and local health organizations might give them hell for enabling the spread of a potentially fatal flu. This is the reason it's so bad in Mexico...many sick workers are not allowed to stay home, which spreads the virus quickly. Don't let your workplace turn you into Typhoid Mary.
• Plan ahead.
• Duct tape! Duct tape is good for everything. Everything.

H1N1 is nothing to panic about. Most media coverage of it has presented the facts as alarmist as possible. Media reports of death and infection counts have used the "possible" numbers - not the confirmed numbers, numbers which have been cut in half after further investigation.

While it's possible we may be seeing the next Spanish flu, the world is prepared. Government and international organizations were prepared ahead of time and because they are not being formed in the middle of the storm, they are able to minimize the impact of the new flu and because of this we may never see anything like the Spanish flu ever again. But organizations ready ahead of time only do so much good if you and your family are not ready ahead of time.

President Obama is right--it's a cause for concern and preparedness, not for panic. We may see another pandemic scare in the next few years, and hopefully we'll all realize that we need to be prepared on an individual level.