Here is a great comment I came across in a forum I read. It sells the idea that Japan's behavior during this disaster is setting the standard much higher in the way humans are supposed to behave in times of crisis. The American people (and the rest of the world for that matter) are nowhere near this well behaved. The author of this post is getting the sense of the urgency. One person at a time, minds are being made over to change the way we prepare.
@ All, Great discussion here, if I may interject some other ideas:I preface these ideas with this, I have read the backgrounds on most of you all and I by no way, even on a good day, be allowed to play in your sandboxes, you all are a heck of a lot smarter than me!Having serviced in the National Response System, albeit Military, I have seen firsthand what this country needs is respect to a full proof National Response: all the money in the world cannot buy this, the ability of the people of this country to develop a preparedness mind set. (General Russell Honore) Yes, we have great programs already in place FEMA, National Guard, State Departments of Emergency Management, and last BUT CERTAINLY, BY NO STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION, least…..Local First Responders.However, all the “nice” programs in the world will not provide the citizens of this country what they need in time of disaster. We all know that resources are taxed, during an emergency; First Responders have mission priorities, LIFE and Property being the top two. Yet our country has no real program in place, to train the population in times of disasters.We have to take a page from the Israeli playbook, train our population to be self sufficient for a minimum of 94 hours. I have seen 72 hours thrown around, but I say take that one step further. I don’t know statically what the number is but I would say that it is less than 50% of our population that has NO current basic First Aid Training. Does not have the basics for survivability, food, water, and shelter. So I ask this, would that $27,000,000 that’s being tossed around here, could we not make better use of that running PSAs on TV, Facebook, Twitter, or any other of 9 billion media resources and outlets in this county? (And yes that was a little inflated) Could we not start early in, OMG should I even go here?, School and train our children in First Aid and other survival techniques? Zach, makes a good point, could not businesses invest a little into their most important business resource, People and sponsor training, just think what that would do for their Business Continuity?Now before you get the idea that I am a survivalist, well,.... I hate to disappoint, but I’m not, I just believe that should a disaster strike my area, my neighborhood, I will be prepared to assist my family, friends and neighbors. A lot of times in this country we try to close the gate after the horse has gotten out. Lets train our people and maybe to some extent we can keep the horse in. If I am way off base to your discussion, then please accept my apologies, but one thing I loved seeing in a news report from Japan, They were not crying for their version of FEMA, they were taking care of business, the business of helping each other, and recovering on their own.I don’t know just my two cents. For what its worth!! |
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