OK ..Now lets plan for the next time (Katrina & other disasters)

Look at this current disaster we can see that all levels of government had (to be kind) shortcomings. So what now? Well lets remember 1st the level of government. The 1st level is YOU the citizen (or resident). What is your responsibility? Do you have a disaster kit available? http://www.ready.gov has a list of what you need. Do you have a plan as how to evacuate if you need to? The second level of government is your neighborhood. Get to know your neighbors, who has special needs, who has what training in 1st aid, medical, building trades, contacts etc. From there the levels are of course the local government(s) county city, townships, etc then the state - each state should have an emergency department or agency then the federal government and all the agencies associated. We need to be sure that we tell our representatives that we expect adequate fund, training, planning and response in emergencies, BUT we also must be involved in our own planning, training and response. So to sum it all up - What are YOU doing to prepare for the next disaster? Prepare your KIT. Take a First Aid Class Get good communications ready - Program in all those numbers you need for family and help you keep meaning to do. Get a HAM license or a CB just a cell phone isn't good enough. Keep a car in repair and fueled up. Know the evac routes in your area. Get a generator And TALK to your neighbors. Remember YOU are the 1st level of government, You are the on scene commander, and YOU HAVE A RESPONSEABILITY.

If you live in a major city and think it would be different than New Orleans, you're wrong.

If you live in a minor city like I do, things would be little different if law and order break down and social chaos ensues.

I've been agonizing about a personal evacuation plan for about 30 years now. I am telling my family to leave me behind because of my age and try to get to a rural area well away from a major city where marauders will fan out. I had always hoped some rural property my family owns would provide a safe haven, but it might not be safe from roving refugees if Chicago gets hit with something. I will try to allocate the resources for them to do so. Take as much food and water, medicines, anything necessary for survival with you.

You need to get your life in order, prepare spiritually, not get mired in drugs and alcohol, practice patience and get any tendency to fly off the handle under control, so you can be cool-headed enough to own firearms and protect yourself and your family with them.

There are some things you simply cannot plan for depending on the crisis.

Get basic survival necessities packed and ready to go and pray with everything you've got. Don't depend on your neighbors unless you live in an exceptional neighborhood. It will be every man/family for himself.

They will have to shoot me before I would willingly go to an evacuation center after what I have seen. I would rather die.

Nothing about any of this has surprised me in the least. If it weren't for the flood, which is hampering rescue efforts, it is also protecting some people from being tortured, robbed, killed and raped because the human animals can't get to some of them.

DO NOT DEPEND ON ANY GOVERNMENT AGENCY FOR ANYTHING. Even if you are on a minimal budget people on foodstamps could slowly store extra canned food and water for their own survival if they wanted to.

I know how to can. Home canned goods are really heavy and difficult to transport. During the WWII my mother who was luckier than some got half of a cow from a farmer and stayed up 24 hours canning beef. That was then; this is now. We never had to deal with civil disorder in those times, even during the depression. My mother used to irritate me with her stories about the depression. Now I'm glad she told me some of those things.

Don't loot and steal unless you absolutely have to, and then only with the intention of trying to make restitution somehow, if only by lending a helping hand to someone else. You can't even share much with the hordes who are unprepared or your family and loved ones will starve.

Actually, you never saw the madness that is NO occur even in Communist countries.

That is a valid point. Better not go on to what might have stopped the slaughter by those who rose to power. I don't claim to know everything other than what I saw unfold in New Orleans.

Despite what excuses are made by the MSM, some people will have long memories, especially those who were preyed upon by their own kind. Most of those who took the vulture role in my life were my own kind.

I'm scared of those kind of people we saw. I didn't grow up being scared of those people. I am not of a lot of them. I have one black friend. We don't see eye-to-eye on some things. She readily admits that many, many of them hate us white people, and I don't live in the south. There people of my own ethnicity I'm afraid of, too.

I had an ancestor who risked life and property on the underground railroad helping escaped slaves get to safety in Canada. My great grandfather took in a person of color from the south (I won't tell you what everyone called him becaue it wouldn't fly now). I don't know if my great grandfather called him that or not. Anyway, my father told me that he helped out as a farmhand. When it came time to eat, the ex-slave went to a corner with his food. My great-grandfather upbraided him and told him he was to eat at the family table. And so it was. You have to understand the times in that area. Many had never even seen a person of color.

Oh, and of course, when my colored friend comes to see me, we eat at the same table. I wait on her.

"Smart Growth" (dense population concentrated "downtown" with a public transporation system (especially rail) does not work in an emergency.

Here in Houston, the Smart Growthers (also known as "Inner Loop" types) openly resent those who live at the "edge" of town and want to stand in the way to any expansion of our freeways for higher loads.

Those freeways are an interstate system. As it stands now, they are used daily by the trucking industry, travellers, commuters, and now evacuees who are being moved into San Antonio.

You can't evacuate a city when you don't have public transportation plans to use city buses to take people out of town (and just what is the plan, where do they go?). Even private cars will get stuck in gridlock (far worse than what you would experience on the day after Thanksgiving or any 3 day weekend).

And civic money, which used to go to shoring up public schools so that they could be used for storm shelters (including the much maligned fallout shelters) now goes to lining pockets of connected contractors building billions in stadiums and theaters.

When a city puts tourism over infrastructure, beware.

Houston WILL flood again. Our mayors (one after the other, all connected to the same interests) have served us poorly.

I guess that's a good place, if you have a baby. My neighbors had a special closet set aside. The foodstuffs centered around canned whole wheat (unground) and a hand operated grinder (or an electric grinder that could also be operated with a crank) so that they could turn the wheat grains into flour and many other forms of nourishment. They had lots of recipes, etc., for making things out of that wheat that would never occur to me. I think the food in the form that they kept it could be stored about 5 years and then rotated.

I always admired their ingenuity and determination.

I thought your remark was commentary on their traditional large families at first! LOL.

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