In Case of Emergency, Read This Blog

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A Citizen’s Eye View of Public Preparedness

“How Self Reliance Can Get You Through Any Disaster”

September 12th, 2009 · 1 Comment

There is an article in the October issue of Popular Mechanics, “How Self Reliance Can Get You Through Any Disaster” by Glenn Reynolds. According to Reynolds, who often writes about citizen preparedness on his blog, Instapundit,

“Here’s a simple truth: It’s better to bend than to break, and it’s best to be prepared for the worst. This age-old wisdom is going by a new name in slide-rule circles: “Resilience engineering” starts with the insight that it’s smart to design and maintain systems so they have some give. That means building technologies that offer extra capacity to handle sudden loads, plenty of warning when normal operations are beginning to break down, backup systems in case things do go wrong, diverse digital architectures so that a single bug doesn’t produce widespread failure, and decentralization so that when (not “if”) communication breaks down things don’t grind to a halt…

…When it comes to large-scale emergencies, the country has a hidden weapon-and we can do more with this resource. I’m talking about a populace filled with self-reliant, community-minded individuals. During a major crisis, on the order of Katrina or a serious California earthquake, relief services can be overwhelmed. When individuals are prepared to look after themselves for a while, with food, water and medicine on hand, and alternative sources of heat or power, it makes a big difference. The government can’t take care of everybody at once. If disaster-relief staffs don’t have to worry about you, they can take care of others-which means that being self-reliant can actually help your community.

Often, government officials worry about the public panicking in a widespread disaster. But they have that backwards. In studies of more than 500 emergencies, the University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Center found that panic rarely occurred. In fact, people consistently jump in to help themselves and their neighbors. Research by scholars like Kathleen Tierney, who directs the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder, shows that the true first responders are often the people on the scene when a disaster strikes. They save lives by administering first aid, getting people out of hazardous areas and spreading warnings. Volunteers improvised the water-based evacuation of lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, called an American Dunkirk by some, that moved masses of people out of the danger zone.

A self-reliant attitude is good, but skills help mightily, too. Citizen training is available through the Red Cross, Community Emergency Response Teams and Neighborhood Emergency Response Teams. One underappreciated resource is the amateur radio community. Acquire a ham radio license (American Radio Relay League, ) and you can become a major resource if a disaster strikes. It’s fun, too.”

Thanks to the National Hazards Center’s Twitter feed for bringing this to my attention.

(Illustration by Paul Blow, Popular Mechanics)

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Tags: Preparedness Tips

1 response so far ↓

  • 1 Paul Garth (KI6USA) // Sep 19, 2009 at 1:25 am

    I was recently interviewed by RadioOjai on the upcoming Ojai OK! Drill (October 14th) — http://okdrill.org.

    The first question out of the gate asked (considering the interview was taped on 9/11/09) was about what citizens can do to respond when the disaster happens.

    My response focused on the first thing coming to mind — “Immediately execute your disaster preparedness plan”.

    Sounds simple, but my point is that without a plan, who knows what you will do — in SoCal, most people immediately dive for the cellphone and call asking, “Did you feel that?” — this blows out communication lines and is the incorrect first step.

    Feel free to listen in to the interview at: http://radioojai.com/2009/09/11/lisa-interviews-paul-garth-of-the-ojai-ok-drill.aspx

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