In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

I want to highlight two recent items from the blog of The Unthinkable author Amanda Ripley.

First, Amanda posted an excerpt from her book and Time cover story with recommendations on how to refine your own “disaster personality”. She lists five areas — Attitude, Knowledge, Anxiety Level, Body Weight & Training — where you can actually improve your resilience in advance in case you face an emergency.

Second, she posted an article she just wrote for Time.com, which points out and then explains the phenomenon of why more men die in floods than women

“In the floods that have swamped the U.S. this month, at least 12 people have been killed. Nine of them were men: in Iowa, three men, ages 33, 35 and 50, died in the floods; three middle-aged men perished in Indiana; Wisconsin, West Virginia and Minnesota lost one man each.

The ratio, it turns out, is typical for storms. Men are more likely than women to die in floods, year after year, all over the country. A study of U.S. thunderstorm-related deaths from 1994 to 2000 found that men were more than twice as likely to die than women. Of the 1,442 fatalities, 70% were men, according to research by Thomas Songer at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health. Most of the deaths happened outside the home during flash floods or lightning strikes. That is partly because men are more likely to be outside for their jobs. But men are also more likely to take risks of all kinds — which can be a fatally bad idea in ugly weather.”

Amanda also lists some helpful tips for men (and women) faced with flood waters