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Joined: Dec 2003
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Pierre, I thought you knew where I am- Hawthorne. Just thought about a friend of mine who lives on Ossining. They planted an "Emergency Evacuation Bus Stop" sign in his lawn in front of his $$$ house. He made them move it... -Hal [This message has been edited by hbiss (edited 02-19-2005).]
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 7,520
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Being serious, as I'm right on the coast the biggest natural threat in my area is the possibility of flooding. We were actually on alert a couple of days ago due to a high tide coinciding with strong winds. We seem to be fairly well-protected in this little spot though. Somebody who has been in the area for years said that even during the very bad floods all along the east coast in 1953 this little burgh was cut off due to flooded roads, but the settlement itself was high and dry. It was after that bad flooding that a lot of the coast had extra sea defenses built. There's not much in this rural area of strategic importance from an attack point of view, except the North Sea gas terminal at Bacton, which is just a few miles north of here. Whether they've added extra precautions in recent years, I have no idea. 1953 Floods Bacton gas terminal
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Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 8,443 Likes: 3
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Obviously being a member of the local Fire Brigade here, if something did happen, we would like people to be able to survive by themselves, until help actually turned up. I hate to say it, but in a situation like that, people would have to think for themselves.
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Joined: Jul 2002
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I'm not about to rub salt into the wounds guys. But, it's going to take some time to clean up New Orleans. Thing that REALLY gets my goat is the fact that people are TOLD to leave, but they know better don't they?!!. Idiots.
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Joined: May 2005
Posts: 706
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Unfortunately Mike, in many cases the people had no means of tranportstion or funds for transportation and housing (living from paycheck to paycheck).
The people with credit cards and money got out. One family from Illinois had a limo drive their daughter all the way ($2700.00). Most of the people killed and trapped didn't have that option.
Dave
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Joined: Jul 2004
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The criminal failure in New Oreleans was the lack of shelters and the shelters they had were not stocked with the basic needs. The New Orleans city government KNEW the people who would be showing up would not bring anything with them. Anyone who has ever had any dealing with the federal government knows it may overwealm you with help eventually but it takes a week to get them moving.
Greg Fretwell
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Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 1,803
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No politics chaps. Easy to criticise, much harder to actually do the right thing. I think the lessons will have been learned, given the US President's unprecedented and refreshing honesty on this matter.
As to survival in the event of a major catastrophe, we all need to make better plans than a few flashlights and a full gas -tank. Stores of dry goods, canned meat and fish, sugar, medical supplies, bandages, disinfectant, insecticide, a good shotgun ( for the pot ) and fishing gear for instance. And it has to be in a safe place, and the family needs to know where it is. When Ma finally departed, my sister and I had to get rid of hundreds and hundreds of pounds of foodstuffs stored against WWIII, the major item being bags of sugar, some of which were 40 years old! We went through WWII living on SFA, but we had sugar! You could brew up some beer or wine, sweeten fruit for pies, make jam, eke out weak tea and best of all- trade it for other stuff, like a nice chicken or some powdered egg, yummy!
Alan
Wood work but can't!
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Joined: Jul 2002
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Good call Alan, The word that has to come into it is "survival". Most of the people that I've met recently couldn't cook thier way out of a brown paper bag. What happens when all the fast food outlets go down?. People only light fires out of anger these days, not to survive. In my opinion, we've just got too lazy for our own good. Over here, we are told to expect to be on your own for at least 3 days to a week. I'd doubt that a lot of people here could last 1 day at the most. If we had a decent earthquake here at night, most people here couldn't find thier front door. But of course, disasters only happen during the day don't they.
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 5,445 Likes: 3
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Here's the best bit of "preparedness": say 'hello' to your neighbors!
Many places have suffered major disasters, and have had minimal disruption, followed by a rapid return to 'normal.' Those places had folks who didn't have to be told to work together, and to look out for each other.
Other places have needed as little as a rumor of a court verdict- and the fires started, the riot began, and the looting was on. I know one such place that hasn't recovered yet from its' 1968 frenzy.
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Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 449
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We saw a lot of preparation leading up to the Y2K scare in 1999. Canned food, gasoline and paper products were being horded around here in the fall of '99. My father-in-law was convinced that toilet paper and tamp-ons were going to be the currency of the new millenium. He finally used up all of those 2 gal. cans of gas he'd stored up last summer mowing his lawn. I have a preparedness plan for my family in place. I always have. My folks did too and taught us to as well. I think it was just part of their mindset having went through the Depression, WWII and the fear of "The Bomb" in the 50s-60s. I remember having to dump and refill the water jugs in the cellar twice a year when I was a kid.
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Posts: 57
Joined: August 2003
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