CHICAGO – Forget the wit of Indiana Jones, the brawn of Jason Bourne or the endurance of Jack Bauer. In the event of disaster, Americans would prefer to have by their side MacGyver, the ingenious secret agent from the 1980s TV show.

That was one result in a survey released Wednesday in which participants were given a choice among seven fictional heroes for help in an emergency.

Despite that lighthearted question, the poll, commissioned by the McCormick Tribune Foundation, has a serious purpose: Urging Americans to become better prepared for disasters.

Still, the fact that a television character who triumphed by using everyday objects and scientific principles was most cited in the poll surprised and delighted Don Cooke, the foundation’s senior vice president for philanthropy.

“I love ‘MacGyver.’ You could give him a sock and a piece of string and he could somehow create electricity for the whole city,” joked Cooke, an astronomer by training.

“MacGyver,” portrayed by Richard Dean Anderson, ran from 1985 to 1992 on ABC. In the survey, 27 percent of respondents chose the character.

That was followed by Indiana Jones (16 percent); John McClane from the “Die Hard” films (14 percent); James Bond and Jason Bourne (8 percent each); and Lara Croft and Jack Bauer of “24” (7 percent each).

For the survey, Opinion Research Corp. interviewed 1,049 randomly selected American adults by telephone Aug. 24-27. The margin of error was plus or minor 3 percentage points.

In other questions, seven in 10 respondents said it was very or somewhat likely that their community would suffer some kind of disaster during the next 10 years.

About a quarter of respondents thought the most likely disaster to hit their community would be a tornado; about 6 percent said a terrorist attack.

Six in 10 respondents said they had set aside an emergency kit featuring a flashlight, a portable radio and water, among other items.

Less than a third said they had a plan on where to meet family members in the event of a disaster preventing them from going home or contacting each other.

Cooke said when making emergency plans and kits, Americans can use general guidelines from groups like the American Red Cross.

But they should also personalize preparations, he said, for instance by making plans for getting medication and discussing what a family might do with pets.

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