Should We Start Weekly Meetings?

I listened with interest, hope and frustration this week as one person interviewed on the radio noted that this week's events in Japan, followed on the heels of New Zealand's quakes, really made him think about emergency preparedness.  OK, maybe it is the fact that I do emergency preparedness for a living, but...REALLY!?  Should it take an event of this magnitude to get someone simply to think about getting  prepared?

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, our human nature is to disregard, put off, or just flat out deny the possibiity of something unpleasant or sad.  Understandable, but it is something that we need to learn to do.  And now!  We have learned to buy insurance to guard against car accidents or house fires.  We have learned that wearing seat belts will save your life if you get in a car crash.  We have learned to put rubber mats in showers to prevent slips and falls.  So now we need to learn to acquire a new skills set... Prepare for a NATURAL incident.

Preparing for disasters, manmade or natural, should be something we need to weave into our daiy lives.  Rather than making it "that thing" so ominous we don't even want to name, we can learn to accept it as a part of our routine, like grocery shopping or cleaning house.  Maybe not pleasant activities, but relatively neutral.  Once we change the flavor of the label of preparedness, we can start building our cache of tools and supplies to help you survive whatever comes your way.

I doesn't have to be a revolution, but maybe a quiet, but resolute change in ourselves.  I doesn't have to be difficult either.  At http://prepare.fullerton.edu, you can find a simple 12 step program to get prepared in no time.  It doesn't require you to stand, state your name, and tell us that you used to deny that disasters happen.

But it wouldn't hurt.  Give it a try and let me know how it works out.

The Earth Wants Us to Listen

Mother Earth has shook herself again... Just a few weeks ago in New Zealand and now in Japan. In this day of high technology and smart phones and instantaneous broadcasts, we all stopped in our tracks and stood and watched in horror as the images of that 8.9 quake literally shook the life from many Japanese.

And yet, many say, they were lucky in that Japan has the most advanced early warning system on earth to warn people when an earthquake is detected. Now, granted, that “early warning” means a minute or less, but that could mean you’d have time to find a sturdy table or desk, or race to the car in tsunami prone areas. However, many images that I saw defied any sense that it could have mattered.

Japan is known for its preparedness for earthquakes, since this is a place known for such natural occurrences. I have read many times that they are all well trained and know what to do. Yet, the images I saw were quite clear – people STOOD near their desks as things topped around them. People RAN across their offices to stand IN DOORWAYS. A person stood next to a high, fully loaded grocery shelf, ARMS UP, trying to keep it upright. People RAN out of buildings while boulder sized chunks of building smashed to the ground around them.

Maybe it is the Emergency Management Coordinator in me, but I was thinking, “Where is the Drop Cover and Hold On” technique everyone trains to do? Why are people running out of buildings where we KNOW things fall off and have killed many people? Where is your training?

The answer is not simple, nor clear. How could I possibly in the comfort of my own home judge what I would really do in such a violent event? Honestly, I don’t, but it does remind me that we don’t practice enough. If you want to learn to play a game, do you only play it once in a while and expect to know how to play well, or play to win? Of course not. Take the game of golf, an area where I actually do have some expertise. You get instructions, then you hit practice balls. THOUSANDS of them and practice some more. Eventually, your body learns what to do so you don’t even have to think about it. This is what we really need to do: Practice until our body does the right thing before our brain (in panic, fear) short-circuits what we practiced.

I feel tremendous sorrow for the people of Japan, New Zealand, Haiti – they have all suffered tremendously and will continue to for some time. So, for them, and FOR US, I want to remind everyone that practice you should, and, if I have my way, practice we shall.

There are ways to survive and survive well. We just need to listen. And practice.