Friday, July 6, 2012

Disasters are never easy


By now you must have figured out that I am not a prepper who focuses on “TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt” (EOTWAWKI), there are plenty of people blogging about that out there.  I try to think practically about the everyday disaster.

 
A very important event happened recently that calls into question how our country can handle a disaster of infrastructure.  The East coast suffered a debilitating storm that brought high winds that uprooted trees, smashed houses and damaged our electrical infrastructure.  In our nations capitol region 90% of the folks who lost power won’t get it back for 7 days says Pepco (the local electric Company). But even worse, Verizon who handles 911 calls was down with no fall back, and no real explanation.  

So now you are thinking, but we pay lots of money in taxes, how could our nations capitol area be so impacted? What if this was really bad; like a terror attack or a bigger quake than they had last year, or a hurricane? 

So, what should you do to not be affected by this type event?

You can plan! Do you have a generator? Do you know how to use it safely?  Do you have a plan for refueling it? (no electricity generally means no gas stations) Do you have water? Do you have an evacuation plan to leave the area ?   

Yes leave!  If you don’t have power for a week, that means no fans, air-conditioning (or heat), you probably can’t cook , your refrigerator will not keep food cold, and a whole host of other problems. Now is a good time to take a vacation, visit the family.  
If you can't leave, look for cooling/warming (seasonal) on the Red Cross website, or local emergency management website. 

But no matter what, seriously, have a plan.  Disasters are hard, but they much less difficult if you have a plan.

disaster_dave

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