Wow! What a week! One of the most important events in many of our lifetimes just occurred this past week. After 30 years of inarguably a corrupt and repressive government, the Egyptian President received a strong boot in the pants by the country’s own people. And what impressed me the most was that 1) relatively few people died and 2) it happened in large part by the power of the country’s youth!
OK, Sue, this seems a LARGE stretch to emergency preparedness, right? Au contraire! The youth of Egypt and the world are a much different breed from those of us from an earlier generation. Today, they communicate FAR more than we did at that age. They text, they tweet, they Facebook, they blog. And when Mubarak’s regime decided to pull the plug on the Internet for Egyptians, that was apparently “it!”
So, the point is that communication has changed drastically and it is really up to us to use it. Many people who felt lost in New Orleans after Katrina “found” their family via Facebook. Blogs gave a voice to those who wanted to let others know that they were broken a bit, but not beaten, and gave people a reason to hope. Text messages reached places that normal voice messages could not.
Communication will probably be the thing that will mean the successful survival after a major disaster. Yes, some services will be disrupted and possibly out for a while, but when we have so many ways of communicating, one will eventually be our way to life and recovery.
So, tweet, blog or log on to that Facebook now and start your own revolution to be prepared.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
Super Bowl Mania
Every year the Super Bowl and all that surrounds it amazes me. Men, women, old, young, any ethnicity, go nuts over this one event. Super Bowl game time is also the time that I choose to do some shopping. The stores are eerily empty of other shoppers. It’s as if they know something that I don’t...
Actually, the Super Bowl, for all its hype, is good for a couple things. One, it provides at least a couple of really funny commercials. Yes, I know they exist because, even though I don’t watch the game, I have my husband hollar at me when a worthy commercial comes on. Secondly, it distracts us from the sadness and strife in the rest of the world for a couple hours (several hours, if you include the pre-game stuff). However, to be fair, I believe that Call of Duty and Angry Birds take many people too often to distraction, then suddenly they have forgotten about everything else in the world -- Oh, the Sirens! -- but that is for another Blog...
I had this theory that crime during the Super Bowl would decrease since (statistically) most crime-causing people are men and that most men are parked in front of a TV with their buddies watching the game. When I tried to Google this phenomenon, I first hits I got claimed that 10,000 prostitutes converged on the Dallas area and that child sex rings were suspected and...Oh, argh! Cancel search.
OK, so much for that theory, but it does make me think of this. How much preparation does one do to “have” a Super Bowl party? I know that there are websites solely devoted to planning tips for the big event. Also, since realistic estimates of the number of viewers for a Super Bowl are around 100 million (way less than the billion number hype, presumably propagated by the NFL marketers), that is really a lot of people who KNOW how to prepare for something.
See where I’m going with this? Yes, of course! If a person can go to those extremes to prepare for a 3-hour event that occurs every year, surely that same person could prepare for an emergency, right? If those finely honed organization skills were diverted for just for a day or two every year to make a family disaster plan, or re-stock their emergencies supplies, or make their emergency car kit, wouldn’t we, as a community and a society, be so much more prepared when disaster hits?
Oh, yeah, Sue. It will happen. I just have to think of a really good half time show...
Actually, the Super Bowl, for all its hype, is good for a couple things. One, it provides at least a couple of really funny commercials. Yes, I know they exist because, even though I don’t watch the game, I have my husband hollar at me when a worthy commercial comes on. Secondly, it distracts us from the sadness and strife in the rest of the world for a couple hours (several hours, if you include the pre-game stuff). However, to be fair, I believe that Call of Duty and Angry Birds take many people too often to distraction, then suddenly they have forgotten about everything else in the world -- Oh, the Sirens! -- but that is for another Blog...
I had this theory that crime during the Super Bowl would decrease since (statistically) most crime-causing people are men and that most men are parked in front of a TV with their buddies watching the game. When I tried to Google this phenomenon, I first hits I got claimed that 10,000 prostitutes converged on the Dallas area and that child sex rings were suspected and...Oh, argh! Cancel search.
OK, so much for that theory, but it does make me think of this. How much preparation does one do to “have” a Super Bowl party? I know that there are websites solely devoted to planning tips for the big event. Also, since realistic estimates of the number of viewers for a Super Bowl are around 100 million (way less than the billion number hype, presumably propagated by the NFL marketers), that is really a lot of people who KNOW how to prepare for something.
See where I’m going with this? Yes, of course! If a person can go to those extremes to prepare for a 3-hour event that occurs every year, surely that same person could prepare for an emergency, right? If those finely honed organization skills were diverted for just for a day or two every year to make a family disaster plan, or re-stock their emergencies supplies, or make their emergency car kit, wouldn’t we, as a community and a society, be so much more prepared when disaster hits?
Oh, yeah, Sue. It will happen. I just have to think of a really good half time show...
Sunday, January 30, 2011
I didn’t know I was pregnant until the baby came!
Seriously. There is a TV program now with this theme. Again, seriously, I asked myself. How could a woman possibly NOT know she was pregnant? I had 2 children and in the second month, I was visited by the Morning Sickness Fairy, who evidently loved me and stayed with me morning and night for half of my pregnancy. During the 3rd month, I started to have Braxton Hicks contractions, which persisted until I delivered. Not to mention that basketball-sized object that appeared in my belly. So, seriously, how can you not know?
To be fair, I did hear about the one surprised mother who was quite overweight and had a very small, premature baby, even while on birth control. Ok, maybe it could happen, but...
Where I see a parallel to this blog is the person who lives in Southern California and still is in denial of where he or she lives. This is Earthquake Country, friend! You can deny it all you want, but the geology is clear. The periodic small to medium tremblers are whispers in all of our ears. The Big One is coming.
To be fair to these individuals, we really don’t know when the statistically given event will take place. It could be while I am typing this, or 100 years from now. The only problem is that the last “big one” to occur in this neck of the woods was about 150 years ago and, their occurrence has been historically about every...150 years!
I don’t like being the Chicken Little type who is constantly yelling the “Earth is going to shake, the earth is going to shake!” However, I would rather be more like your friend gently urging you to find ways, even little ways, every day to protect yourself in the event of a disaster. It might not even be an earthquake. Maybe it is a flood, or a wide-range power outage, or anything else that disrupts your daily life.
Whatever it is, you shouldn’t be totally surprised when it happens. At least you can say, “I saw it coming.”
To be fair, I did hear about the one surprised mother who was quite overweight and had a very small, premature baby, even while on birth control. Ok, maybe it could happen, but...
Where I see a parallel to this blog is the person who lives in Southern California and still is in denial of where he or she lives. This is Earthquake Country, friend! You can deny it all you want, but the geology is clear. The periodic small to medium tremblers are whispers in all of our ears. The Big One is coming.
To be fair to these individuals, we really don’t know when the statistically given event will take place. It could be while I am typing this, or 100 years from now. The only problem is that the last “big one” to occur in this neck of the woods was about 150 years ago and, their occurrence has been historically about every...150 years!
I don’t like being the Chicken Little type who is constantly yelling the “Earth is going to shake, the earth is going to shake!” However, I would rather be more like your friend gently urging you to find ways, even little ways, every day to protect yourself in the event of a disaster. It might not even be an earthquake. Maybe it is a flood, or a wide-range power outage, or anything else that disrupts your daily life.
Whatever it is, you shouldn’t be totally surprised when it happens. At least you can say, “I saw it coming.”
Friday, January 21, 2011
Prepare for Zombies
This was a title suggested by my teenaged daughter when I asked her about things to worry about in emergencies. Well, I suppose that I wasn’t real specific with my query, but it undoubtedly would be something about which to worry if you encountered one.
For the record, George A. Romero’s 1968 classic cult film, “Night of the Living Dead” probably framed the image we carry today of “zombies...,” those stiff walking, flesh-sloughing, flesh-eating creatures who come out only at night... Even though the zombie concept had been created around 50 years earlier, this was quite a terrifying film in its day.
I cannot help but worry about zombies, though. For some people in Africa and Haiti, this notion still exists in corners of their culture. Frankly, with all that has gone on in the slaughter of people over land, resources, religion and bigotry in Africa and the devastation from hurricanes, earthquakes and widespread disease in Haiti – who is to say that for many people, zombies in some form are quite real.
So, to prepare for zombies, I guess there is the only thing that really prepares us for anything – knowledge. Sometimes horrible things do happen. They happen without reason or warning. They happen whether you “deserve” them or not. They just do. So, ward off zombies by just preparing for the worst. Then, once you have, you can’t worry any more. You are ready and whatever happens, zombie or not, you are ready and you will survive to live another day.
For the record, George A. Romero’s 1968 classic cult film, “Night of the Living Dead” probably framed the image we carry today of “zombies...,” those stiff walking, flesh-sloughing, flesh-eating creatures who come out only at night... Even though the zombie concept had been created around 50 years earlier, this was quite a terrifying film in its day.
I cannot help but worry about zombies, though. For some people in Africa and Haiti, this notion still exists in corners of their culture. Frankly, with all that has gone on in the slaughter of people over land, resources, religion and bigotry in Africa and the devastation from hurricanes, earthquakes and widespread disease in Haiti – who is to say that for many people, zombies in some form are quite real.
So, to prepare for zombies, I guess there is the only thing that really prepares us for anything – knowledge. Sometimes horrible things do happen. They happen without reason or warning. They happen whether you “deserve” them or not. They just do. So, ward off zombies by just preparing for the worst. Then, once you have, you can’t worry any more. You are ready and whatever happens, zombie or not, you are ready and you will survive to live another day.
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