Posted on 07/02/2012 4:43:44 PM PDT by Kartographer
Weve seen it time and again over the last decade. An emergency strikes and panic grips the city or region for days or weeks on end.
We saw a complete breakdown of emergency response and law & order during Hurricane Katrina. The 2011 Snowpocalypse on the east coast led to runs on grocery stores and empty shelves within a matter of hours. Widespread blackouts during Hurricane Ike left large sections of the Houston power grid down for up to four weeks. In all these cases gas was almost impossible to find, what was in your pantry was what you had until food distribution resumed, local water was not safe for consumption, and government response was limited to reinstating essential services first and foremost.
The bottom line, as Jesselyn Radack of the Government Accountability Project notes, is that after billions have been spent by Department of Homeland Security, FEMA and local law enforcement, we are no more prepared today than we were the day before September 11, 2011.
(Excerpt) Read more at shtfplan.com ...
Please pardon my rudeness - I did not mean to make light of your disability.
Implicit in your post is the assumption that a disaster can or should have been instantly healed. That is always the case and mindset of those experiencing a disaster. It never has and never will be the case that victims will be made whole.
The truth, the simple fact of life, is that there is no way to reverse the damage. It must be overcome by a process that varies with the disaster and the severity. Having visited several such minidisasters as a damage assessor, I can say with a fair degree of certainty that the recovery of the electrical grid will be accomplished by teams of electric company guys from as far away as necessary to provide the necessary men and equipment. It takes time to asses the degree of damage and make the calls to other electric companies to order the teams to hit the road. They are there, believe me. They know hat to do and what to bring. If required, in groups of 8 to 10 trucks they will come. They do it for a living. Some hours are required for them to get it all together, kiss the wife and kids and then hit the road.
But the primary reality, the most important concept, is, disasters happen, there is damage, recovery is costly to the individual and the loss will not be covered completely by outside agencies.
The whining is typical of those everywhere who want it to be over now....... it is the lazy no goods who can’t or won’t make me whole instantly who are at fault and I hate their lazy no count response to cure my bad feeling and misery. I was sitting here being a good guy and then this. I live in DC for God’s sake....we are immune to such hardship.!!
The hardship is minor, trivial. Some inconvenience, come discomfort, some spoiled food was likely experienced but the dwelling is likely intact with no mud on the floor or walls and roofs gone or auto with mud on the engine and dripping from the radio.
Some idiot on a prepper thread last week declared “I’ll just take what I need from my neighbors. I told him theft wasn’t a conservative principle, asked if he was too f’n lazy to prepare for himself. In the end I suggested he was on the wrong blog.
Where I live most people have immediate access to a backhoe.
And it won’t be for agricultural purposes.
The strong will always prey upon the weak, makes no difference in what reality people live in, the real aches and pain world of the surreal internet forums hives.
Yes I have some bitterness against forums lately, because they are heavily infested with rodents, lice and vermin.
No flood insurance pays good /s
Well I’LL promise you a cup of coffee (with a little somethin-somethin in it to keep ya warm), good conversation, and something yummy from my “Apocalypse Chow” cookbook! ;-)
Anyone who thinks terrorists are not taking note of the chaos on the east coast from this one storm is crazy. All they have to do is take out a few electrical substations in major cities and all he!! will follow in a few days.
Yes, things are a lot different today.
When I go out I use a wheelchair to get aroud. It is a struggle but doable. I have been marveling at the silly things done to accomodate federal laws rather than the handicapped ... like a ramp cut into a curb which leads to not a sidewalk but a wall or a grassy lot/field, or the placement of a ramp and two handicapped parking places, on a steep slope away from the curb being accessed. I won’t use one like that, too dangerous getting in and out and up the slope or back down the slope, so I’ve learned to mount the curb at a level spot by backing up and over the curb. I don’t blame the businesses, I blame the over enfrocement of regulations and laws. At home I use my canes, but I built my ramps to allow convenient use, to suit myself not the government.
My family and I were just in the process of moving out of the DC area when this struck. We were living in Alexandria (near Ft. Belvoir) and the movers had been packing our belongings for two days. We pulled out going south at about 1900.
We had to pick up our son at a Boy Scout camp near Surry, VA on Saturday morning, so we drove as far as Ashland and decided to get a room for the night. When I walked in to the office of the hotel to register, there was a bit of lightening on the horizon and the air was muggy and still. By the time I walked out, the wind was picking up trash cans and throwing them high in the air.
Before we could get to our room, the torrential rains started and we got soaked running from the car to the door. I started texting and calling the adult leaders at the camp to let them know what was coming their way.
To make a long(er) story short, all the boys were evacuated to the dining hall at the camp and rode out the storm quite well. We picked our son up the next morning and headed over to I-81 to travel south to Mississippi where we are visiting relatives.
All the way down 81, the power was out and the hotels were full of people who had evacuated their homes. My wife and son were exhausted from the rough night; so, when we were finally able to find a hotel in Wytheville, we pulled in for the rest of the day to rest.
The remainder of our trip down has been uneventful by comparison and we are now with family until we fly out of the US after the 4th. All I can say is that I am glad we are not still in the DC area.
Take care and keep safe.
Funny you mention Wytheville - lots of family buried down there, but the tombstones are gone - Union army burned ‘em for firewood. (CSA had to use wood markers during the disturbance).
Everything is OK up here. Hope your houshold goods catch up with you.
1/4 rations
And don't get me started on backing up the turn lane where it could interfere with the bridge traffic so if someone wasn't paying attention where are they going to end up? But no one asked me...
When Bush the Elder showed his Big Government stripes by failing to correct ponytail guy I knew America was in deep trouble.
How different things could have been if he had set that guy straight then and there. Talk about a “teachable moment!”
Please add me to your Preppers Ping list. Thanks.
LOLOL - FNC was just filming the removal of that big tree down the street. Across Great Falls Street.
“Hey, look, babe, our street is on TV!”
“Where the heck do you think you are going?!!”
“Ummm, outside.”
“In those raggedy-@ss shorts, and ripped up tee-shirt? Are you NUTS? Do you even know where your shoes are?”
“Yeah, but, babe ... I could be on TV...”
“And in jail, too, you jackwad.”
LOL. I love my life - and my wife. Heheheheh.
I agree with your wife - find your shoes and lose those clothes for your TV appearance!
Charming.
Beware these people listen to their words carefully and Listen, let yourself hear. what they are saying I know I do.
...practically Scriptural in tone...excellent advice.
Bet the stories are there, the reporting agencies are simply not reporting.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.