What I think should be apparent from all this is that relying on people to tell you what to do and take care of you is not an option. It never was, but now people know it. The Red Cross and army and govt. will do its best but that won't be enough.
What need to happen is for emergency preparedness teams to be very local. We need to follow the example of Cuba and have block captains. I'm sure in wartime this was also the model for cities in the U.S.... Block captains, occasional meetings, stock the schools, hospitals, and local colleges with supplies, make sure everyone on your block knows where the closest evacuation point is.
That should happen everywhere. I am thinking of it in my own neighborhood for earthquakes. My own block is moderately high-density with renters and a lot of spanish speakers; resident turnover is frequent. A challenge. A few blocks away it's single-family homes and mostly english speakers and they will have an easier time organizing. I wonder if the RC local people will talk to me? The schools?
For evacuation outside the city, pretty much I figure we could kiss our asses goodbye since we're on a peninsula and there's bridges and way too many bottlenecks. If leaving the entire area were the goal, because of, say, a dirty bomb in SJ or SF ... I would have to head up into the hills nearby and try to go down the coast to Monterey. Nightmare! So staying put would be way more sensible.
While I agree that that is probably what we need, our think American's inherrent belief is that we don't need anyone, and we would resist intervention that put someone on our block on a higher plane of authority than we are. We're loners, and we resist authority. I think that has a lot to do with why so many people chose to stay behind in New Orleans. We'd rather brave it on our own, than submit to the authority of another.
Don't misunderstand, I'm not espousing that behavior, just stating it as my opinion of the way we are.
Candy
Posted by: Nopoodle | September 23, 2005 at 10:06 AM
Stay put. That's what we did during Loma Prieta. In SF there will be lots of areas that will likely be spared due to solid bedrock beneath. The Haight is one of those areas. Not all of the city's power went down. As you will recall, it was the Marina that got slammed.
We are all set and ready at Chez Dr. L's Worst. Our supplies and equipment is in a separate little house/shed away from our main house (which survived quite nicely in 89). If this little shed collapses it's no big deal as it would be a matter of pulling away some boards and grabbing our gear underneath. Santa Cruz will suck for access, though. All of the incoming roads are subject to slides and Highway 1 could be under tsunami warning.
Posted by: GraceD | September 23, 2005 at 10:06 AM
And uphill Deadwood will fare better than downhill/by 101 Deadwood. East of El C Real the ground is jello, marshland.
Thank fucking God Deadwood has the Badgerbag Disaster Patrol in their community. They will be known by their rainbow arm warmers!
Posted by: GraceD | September 23, 2005 at 10:14 AM
LOL yeah I think staying put is good, but we must have evacuation/disaster plans that are a middle ground between "stay put" and "get in your car on the highway with your kids and dogs". Look at NOLA, when people were stuck, and then their houses collapsed or flooded, the first thing they did was to go to the nearest school or hospital, sturdy buildings, large, likely to be gathering centers. So why not prepare for that scenario?
Posted by: badgerbag | September 23, 2005 at 10:23 AM
This morning on the radio I heard a report that Port Arthur has had an evacuation plan in place for five years, with 200 buses and 700 ambulances chartered to be available in an emergency to evacuate the most vulnerable residents. Except the state of Texas decided to comandeer the buses and ambulances earlier in the week when it looked like Houston and Galveston were right in the path of the hurricaine, and now Port Arthur looks like it's going to get creamed, without having been able to evacuate everyone. Naturally, the people in the local government were pretty embittered -- they actually had a plan, dammit!
One of the things Moot and I have been talking about is how to find each other and other local family members (my parents, my sister, his mom) if there's a disaster here and we get separated.
Posted by: garnet | September 23, 2005 at 10:30 AM
Yes - i was talking with Rook about this too and I made us some emergency wallet card type of things with numbers of family and friends, the school, health insurance, i need to put house/mortgage/homeowner insuranc info on there too.
Posted by: badgerbag | September 23, 2005 at 11:17 AM