The book I am currently reading is Thomas Drabek's The Human Side of Disaster. While he covers lots of stuff you probably won't be interested in and that's okay; that's my job. The author goes into great detail about two things that interested me very much, which means it’s something I think you should know about.
So in this blog post I want you to do something for someone else. Yes that is right, today no talk about what you should plan or pack for a disaster.
Evacuation by invitation - You are watching TV and see that an area where your friends/family live and it looks like they should probably leave because of a developing disaster- call them! Even if you only have floor space, it could save their lives. People do not want to evacuate to a Shelter (only a small percentage actually go to a shelter), having someplace to go will make the decision easier for the man in the family. Which leads us to the next point
Evacuation by Compromise- Women tend to be convinced sooner to evacuate than men are. But men will evacuate to keep the peace. The author points out that we make decisions everyday and do things in a relationship because it’s about compromise.
Tie the two together:
" Marge you know we have space for you, come over and lets watch it on TV, if nothing happens you and the family can go home in the morning"
While you may not want people sleeping on your living room floor you could make the difference in your family/friends survival...
But my family lives on the other coast
So what if they live far away? Call anyway and if it looks bad encourage them to evacuate, sometimes a push from afar makes the difference. "Well if Jethro on the other coast thinks we are in danger..."
disaster dave
Dave- you make some great points. We should all be willing to give advice to friends and family.
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