Welcome back. I know that this is supposed to be the latest issue of Companies Behaving Badly but I have a serious concern I’d like to discuss with all of you. I’m concerned that not enough of us are prepared and ready. There have been quite a few natural disasters all over the country in the course of last year. Hurricanes, floods, fires, earthquakes, tornadoes not to mention the Man-made disasters or near disasters like Oroville Dam in California. Large cities like NYC have fabulous central commands staffed with well-trained people directing other well trained, dedicated folks, ready and able to respond to any emergency. Smaller cities do not have that luxury and even with the heroic efforts of first responders, emergency services can be quickly overwhelmed.
In my town with a population of 121,300 living within 49.5 sq. miles, on any given shift there are only 21 firefighters on duty. That’s 21 to safely handle house fires, car crashes, grass fires, and other emergencies. Throw in an earthquake and now you have 21 firefighters resorting to triage to handle the hundreds of calls that will pour into 911. They can’t count on backup from the other shifts due to the poor conditions of the roads and bridges as many of them live out of town. The mutual aid will not arrive as they’ll be too busy with their own town’s emergencies.
That’s why you need to put an emergency kit together. Make it a family project with each member pitching in. This is also not just for the home but your place of work should also have an emergency kit that everyone knows about. Earthquakes have no clock. Stock it well and keep an eye on expiration dates. FEMA’s (Federal Emergency Management Agency) website says you should have enough food and water for each person for at least 3 days, however there are some experts like Vickie Lane https://twitter.com/HAZMATPlans who stresses the importance of planning for a longer period of time, one to two weeks, which does not sound like a bad idea especially if you’re in a remote area.
So please. Don’t just nod your head in agreement. DO IT! If you have questions please don’t hesitate to ask, or reach out to other experts like Vickie in your area or go to the FEMA website. Oh, and by the way, when was the last time you changed the batteries in your smoke/carbon detector?
It’s a wake up call. One humungous wet, windy wake up call. When hurricane Harvey blasted into southwest Texas leaving extensive damage and flooding, the scale of which is all most beyond comprehension. Then hurricane Irma took the spotlight unleashing her fury on the Caribbean and Florida. This is very sad and horrible on so many levels of loss and human suffering and now people who decided to ride out the storm in the keys are stranded, cut off from the world without food, water or power. I’m sure when most of you heard that, you said to yourself, “Really need to put that survival kit together.” A fabulous thought that will unfortunately fade along with the coverage of the epic catastrophes until it becomes “Texas, Florida a year later” and then again you’ll say, “Really need to put that survival kit together.” and then one day, the dam breaks…
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