.... if it's not one thing i'ts another. ;)
Posted on 08/25/2011 11:14:43 AM PDT by blam
We Are Totally Unprepared – Tremors Caused Mass Confusion, Panic
Mac Slavo
August 25th, 2011
SHTFplan.com
The east coast earthquake(s) are just the latest example of how unprepared we are for an emergency or major disaster.
Whether we’re talking about earthquakes, snow storms, hurricanes, floods, electrical outages or terrorist attacks, government officials, as well as individuals, have demonstrated time and again that we have a psychological inability to cope with high stress situations, a lack of foresight to stock emergency reserves, and have failed to prepare effective emergency response plans.
Though we hardly felt any movement here in the city of New York as a result of the earthquake, panic seemed to overtake a lot of people, as indicated by various news programs and social networking sites.
A single tremor was enough to cause mass confusion, building evacuations and cell phone service outages across the city.
…
So, I ask, are we ready for this possibility [Hurricane Irene], New York?
Consider: This region, more than any other, relies on electrical power. From high rise apartment buildings, to business computers, to the subway system, a massive power outage caused by a hurricane will have a significant impact on people’s lives.
Imagine if you were sick or paralyzed, and stuck on a building’s 35th floor without elevator service for days. Or, simply picture the isolation caused by television and cell phone outages. Ask yourself, where are your flashlights? Your radio? How will you keep up to date with important emergency information if the storm knocks out electrical services?
In order to prepare for this hurricane, ultimately we have to think not of the earthquake, which caused no lasting damage, but rather everything that went wrong during this past winter’s big snowstorm.
People were unable to leave their apartments, and emergency buildings were essentially unable to move around on the streets. We were woefully under-prepared, and most city workers had to play catch up to fix the significant problems that resulted from the storm.
Source: Fox News [Hat tip Bill]
Once cell phone service went out following high volumes of calls across the eastern seaboard, local police, fire and medical response was effectively shut down. Add congestion and confusion on roadways and you have a recipe for disaster.
The earthquakes this week were minor events in terms of severity and damage. But consider what might happen in a prolonged regional-disaster. Hurricane Katrina was such an incident, albeit still a short-term event, and luckily the rest of the country was unaffected. Emergency response took a week or more in some instances, and it reportedly took some three days to get bottled water into New Orleans. Bottled Water! And this is with a completely intact national infrastructure around the disaster zone.
Images of the looting, violence, preventable deaths and confiscatory martial law sweeps were beamed to millions of Americans. No one was paying attention, save a few individuals willing to think outside the box of complaceny and the status quo.
We realize the government has spent billions of our tax dollars making preparations. But how that money has been directed and managed is anybody’s guess. When it comes down to it, whatever preparations are being made by emergency preparedness experts at DHS, FEMA and other agencies, they will likely not benefit you all that much. If the time ever came that the infrastructure of the entire United States, not just an isolated region, experienced a far-from-equilibrium event we need to assume help is not coming. No ambulances. No police. No grocery delivery trucks. And no electricians to fix the power.
It’s going to be up to you.
Maybe there’ll be another quake in the next two to four days and that will make more people think about preparing.
One can only speculate that our East Coast is populated with millions upon millions of wusses.
What’s this “we” business, Mr. Slavo? Have you got a frog in your pocket?
“We are totally unprepared”
On the other hand, being prepared for everything is totally cost prohibitive.
I mean...
What about a hurricane???
“You don’t suppose Washington, D.C. could actually be eradicated by an earthquake, do you?
I mean...
What about a hurricane???”
What about an earthquake followed by a hurricane..or two? Even better!
.... if it's not one thing i'ts another. ;)
All this fuss over a 5.9 magnitude quake?
Do you know what we call a 5.9 magnitude quake in California?
We call it a Tuesday!!!!
A hurricane? Hope springs eternal ... dump enough water in the Shenandoah Valley and upper Potomac, and great things can happen.
After reading your post I just had to post this...
All of this has certainly engendered a discussion of alternative means of communication in our family. We are prepared in other ways....but not this.
Any ideas from fellow freepers?
I think the writer is overstating the degree of panic involved. I was at work in DC on Tuesday when the earthquake hit. There was no mass panic. Everyone in my building, including me, left the building and gathered on the street. There was no screaming or other signs of panic, though I did leave one of my colleagues in another state hanging on the telephone. He said that he listened in for a while to see what everyone’s reaction was, and he was surprised at the lack of panic. All he heard was the phone receiver rattling on my desk. Pretty much everyone in my office is from the East Coast. We aren’t used to earthquakes, so when one happens, we tend to focus on it and, of course, it became the talk of the afternoon. After about an hour, people decided that they weren’t getting anything done and it was a gorgeous day here in DC, so everyone just left. When that happens in DC, the traffic gets unmanageable. Just my experience, but I think it’s pretty representative of what the reaction was to the event here in DC.
Second ... The comms infrastructure was not damaged. It was overloaded. Text messaging and email worked quite well for me.
You might want to investigate Amateur Radio, if you're planning for an event which physically damages the comms infrastructure.
Though we hardly felt any movement here in the city of New York /
The quake must have interrupted his manicure.
We here in the heartland have weathered tornados, blizzards, minor quakes for most of our lives. We don’t cry about it or wait for someone to come save us. We pick-up, buck-up and get the job done.
I suggest this guy contact the liberal politicians New Yorkers believe so much in and ask them what their preparedness is. I would hope that New York would be prepared especially after 9-11.
Yes. We have one in place. We all have a small laminated card with the numbers of out of State relatives along with their email addresses. Now just because the cell networks aren't carrying voice calls doesn't mean they won't be carrying text messages. Text takes far less bandwidth than a voice call so that could be a better way.
A short text message saying whatever has a better chance of getting through than a voice call does when cell networks are under stress.
Put a couple of those pre-paid calling cards into your Bug Out Bag, too. You can use those when you find a hard line that's working.
Oddly enough, we did have a “plague” of locusts [well, Cicadas, technically] this year.
I reckon I should go take a look at the river and see what color it is, mebbe.
:)
PING
We’re getting yet another plague of those ^$#$%# @#$%#%^ ^ *&^(*^ Stink Bugs.
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.