My wife received a “Come back to Lifetime Fitness” email this morning, and she did. She dragged all of us along with her, too.
So, now I’m a member of Lifetime Fitness again. This means I have no excuse for not getting back into the “get healthy” groove again.
I think I’m gonna die.
The Region 8 office of FEMA just posted the above pictured tweet.
Is 72 hours long enough anymore? I guess it depends on the size and impact of the incident.
Ask the residents of New Orleans during Katrina, or Staten Island during Sandy, if 72 hours of supplies were adequate.
Every government preparedness agency, on any level, along with most nonprofit preparedness groups, have preached “72 hours” for a long time.
Maybe it’s time to change. Instead of having a stock “72 hour kit,” take a look at the agencies in your area and build a kit that will sustain you until you expect help to arrive. Huh? Look at the agencies and their capabilities. Do you think help will arrive swiftly?
What are the most likely disaster scenarios to occur in your area? Have they happened in the past? If so, how long did it take for roads to open up, stores to have groceries, gas stations to work, etc?
Look at the results of previous incidents, and plan around those. If the average “back to sustainable levels” response time is 2 weeks, you better have supplies on hand to last that long.
In a recent Twitter conversation with a emergency preparedness professional located in Oklahoma, he had this to say: “WHAT is YOUR plan? If your insurance, FEMA, Red Cross, Salvation Army, NVOAD group, neighbor, Uncle, Mother, Sister, Brother, does not show for three days, what will you do?”
FEMA is telling us, by way of messages similar to the above pictured Tweet, to be ready to survive on your own for a while. In nice-nice words, they are saying that you’re on your own for at least 72 hours after an incident.
Looking at the size and scope of major disasters recently, maybe 72 hours isn’t long enough. Maybe 2 weeks also isn’t long enough.
Plan to survive, but also remember that if you need to evacuate, how much of your stash can you take with you?
Check out a blog posting by Lloyd, KC5FM, who commented on this subject a couple of weeks ago: KC5FM Blog
Do YOU have a plan? Do you know what to do?
The Region 8 office of FEMA just posted the above pictured tweet.
Is 72 hours long enough anymore? I guess it depends on the size and impact of the incident.
Ask the residents of New Orleans during Katrina, or Staten Island during Sandy, if 72 hours of supplies were adequate.
Every government preparedness agency, on any level, along with most nonprofit preparedness groups, have preached “72 hours” for a long time.
Maybe it’s time to change. Instead of having a stock “72 hour kit,” take a look at the agencies in your area and build a kit that will sustain you until you expect help to arrive. Huh? Look at the agencies and their capabilities. Do you think help will arrive swiftly?
What are the most likely disaster scenarios to occur in your area? Have they happened in the past? If so, how long did it take for roads to open up, stores to have groceries, gas stations to work, etc?
Look at the results of previous incidents, and plan around those. If the average “back to sustainable levels” response time is 2 weeks, you better have supplies on hand to last that long.
In a recent Twitter conversation with a emergency preparedness professional located in Oklahoma, he had this to say: “WHAT is YOUR plan? If your insurance, FEMA, Red Cross, Salvation Army, NVOAD group, neighbor, Uncle, Mother, Sister, Brother, does not show for three days, what will you do?”
FEMA is telling us, by way of messages similar to the above pictured Tweet, to be ready to survive on your own for a while. In nice-nice words, they are saying that you’re on your own for at least 72 hours after an incident.
Looking at the size and scope of major disasters recently, maybe 72 hours isn’t long enough. Maybe 2 weeks also isn’t long enough.
Plan to survive, but also remember that if you need to evacuate, how much of your stash can you take with you?
Check out a blog posting by Lloyd, KC5FM, who commented on this subject a couple of weeks ago: KC5FM Blog
Do YOU have a plan? Do you know what to do?
To: Emergency Communications Units, any place, any where
By: Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS), the volunteer communications reserve of the State of California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services
Originally Published: June 17, 1996
We get inquiries about why volunteers are not called upon after they have some kind of agreement with a local official. Here, in the words of an unnamed emergency management agency official, is one perspective on why they are left out.
“Volunteers serve the will of the local government. Like it or not and more often than not, if a volunteer embarrasses the local government, they will not be asked to serve again. No reason may ever be given. The volunteers are simply left out in the cold. This is often because the volunteers have often put their own desires and practices before those of the local government. Like it or not, this is not the way to success and long term involvement. That’s one reason the Radio Officer must become intimately familiar with the local government policies, practices, procedures and — yes — politics. The politics of a radio club or association must never get in the way or it can be a one-way road to “out!” Remember, we got along without you before and we can get along without you in the future.”
“I know that many of my counterparts simply won’t say these things to you. But if somebody doesn’t, some of you may wonder why we have had bad experiences with some volunteers. The sheriff doesn’t have these problems with reserve deputies. Any questions?”
Our next series will cover the various types of volunteers, not just those in communications. As we’ve spoken about this around the area it is startling to realize how few people discern that there are actually different TYPES and QUALITIES of volunteers.
We have had good success with using the term “unpaid staff” or “unpaid professionals” rather than volunteers, largely due to the negative images that exist in people’s minds. There is really no way we can know what another person categorizes ’volunteers’ so anything we can do to get beyond those mental images is a step in the right direction.
