# 2178
Today we get a pretty good article out of Canada about the need for the general public to get, and remain, prepared for emergencies.
Sadly, it also points out how few people actually do it.
I'll post a link, and a snippet here, but there is a section about half way down I want to focus on today.
TORONTO: EMERGENCY 101
Be prepared. Be very, very prepared
Flooding, hydro explosions, flu pandemics. It could - it does - happen here. The city and its hospitals are girding for the worst
WENDY BANKS
Special to The Globe and Mail
July 26, 2008
When west Toronto homeowner Dave Mckellar found a flyer tucked in with his hydro bill warning him to keep 72 hours worth of food and water on hand in case of emergency, he wasn't alarmed. "It sounds reasonable, but who's going to do that?" he says. "It's a little bit hard to imagine, really, having no supplies whatsoever for three days ... I think I would just go to the store."
The notion of a Toronto so paralyzed by disaster that you couldn't go out for a falafel if the need arose does seem far-fetched. But ominous ads that have cropped up on waste bins around the city suggest otherwise. The ads feature a message straight out of Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel, The Road: "Dad I'm hungry. Dad I'm hungry. Dad I'm hungry. Dad I'm thirsty." They're sponsored by Toronto's Office of Emergency Management (OEM); the fine print urges citizens to stock up on three days worth of provisions in case of disaster.
So, should we be worried? Is there some new threat that we should know about?
Not according to Warren Leonard, who heads up the OEM. "There's no change in the profile of the risks in this city ... the ads are just a new mechanism to reach out to the public."
Halfway through the article, we get this assessment as to why people don't prepare: (reparagraphing & Highlighting mine)
That's why his office is urging people to prepare generic emergency kits: backpacks stocked with basic survival goods, including food and water, flashlights, a radio and medical supplies.
But a poll quoted on the Ontario government's website says that only 12 per cent of Canadians have made any such preparations at all.
Some of this reluctance may be because the very generic nature of the preparations strikes people as futile. "I think that you wouldn't have the right stuff," Mr. Mckellar says. "Imagine if you stocked up on batteries for your flashlight and all that, and then it turned out that what you really needed was an N95 face mask."
Being prepared isn't something you can buy off the rack with one easy payment.
It is a mindset. A lifestyle. A commitment.
Apparently most people would rather find reasons not to prepare. They will also be the ones who will whine the loudest when help doesn't arrive during a crisis.
Notice, the poll doesn't say that 12% have prepared 72-hour emergency kits. It says that 12% have made some sort of preparation. Maybe they have a battery operated radio, or maybe they have a first aid kit. But they don't have to have both in order to answer `yes' to this poll.
I doubt, except for places like earthquake prone California and perhaps the barrier islands and coastal cities of Florida, that U.S. citizens would be any better prepared.
I confess, I'm bewildered by this failure to prepare. This willingness to place their lives, and the lives of their loved ones, in the hands of a government that is loudly saying they can't come to everyone's rescue during a crisis.
At least, not right away.
What part of, "You need to be prepared to fend for yourself' do people not get?
* * * * *
When I was 17, and still in High School, I took a 3-night American Red Cross first aid course. At the time, I had no idea that a year later I'd be working on an ambulance.
It just seemed like a good idea.
Since I was approaching my 18th birthday, and would soon be out on my own, it seemed like the responsible thing to do. No one told me I should, my parents certainly didn't suggest it. I just decided that there was useful knowledge there that I should know.
So I went.
I spent 3 nights listening to the local fire chief teach us about first aid. I watched the films (most from the 1950's, btw), practiced bandaging the guy next to me, and I made my own first aid kit.
Since that day, I've never been without a serious first aid kit. In my car, and in my home.
* * * * *
Two weeks after I graduated from High School, during the summer of 1972, Hurricane Agnes clipped the west coast of Florida. It wasn't much as hurricanes go, but it sent tropical storm force winds, torrential rain, and some small tornadoes through our area.
Hurricane Agnes
Category 1 hurricane (SSHS)
Hurricane Agnes approaching Florida
My brother and I both ended up as part of the rescue effort that night, pulling the trapped and injured from collapsed trailers, and setting up an ad hoc emergency first aid center in an old post office.
We used the supplies from the first-aid kits we kept in the trunks of our cars to care for the injured.
For several hours, we were the only aid available to a half-dozen injured people. For a kid fresh out of highschool, it was a long night. It also spurred me on to a career in emergency medicine.
* * * * *
Why anyone would abdicate their personal responsibility to care for themselves, and their loved ones, is a mystery to me.
Sure, if there's an ambulance handy, use it.
But what if there isn't?
* * * * *
In the mid-1970's I became a CPR instructor. I taught CPR to hundreds of high school students every year. I was also working as a paramedic for the county EMS.
One day we were called for a cardiac arrest. We found a teenager doing effective CPR on an elderly man. My partner and I were able to cardiovert him; get his heart started, and him breathing again.
Honestly, even with the cardiac drugs and defibrillator we carried- that doesn't happen often.
The kid had done a good job. He'd saved his grandfather's life.
As we were loading the patient into the back of my rig, I asked him where he learned CPR?
He beamed proudly and said, "Don't you remember? You taught me!".
It was one of the proudest days of his life.
And mine.
* * * * *
Hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution has been dependant upon our ability, as a species, to survive.
A hundred and fifty years ago, just about everyone was a `survivalist'. As were all the generations that had come before. You either knew how to survive . . .or you didn't survive.
Somehow, just over the last generation or two, most of us in `civilized and enlightened nations' have forgotten the skills needed survive. We have become a race of specialists, when in order to survive in a crisis, you need to be a generalist.
Ironic, isn't it, that the more advanced our society becomes, the less capable individuals seem to be.
* * * * *
Our government, and the government of Canada, have asked that people be prepared. In Canada, they are asking for people to put together 72-hour kits. Here in the US, the Federal Government is asking people to stockpile for 2-weeks.
Being prepared is all about social responsibility. By relying, at least a little, on ourselves we remove a burden from society to rush to our aid in a crisis.
Being prepared should be taught as being part of our civic duty. Part of being a responsible member of society.
I know we expect the government (ambulance, police, fire, etc.) to respond immediately when we need them. The truth is, they often arrive too late. And during a crisis, they may not be able to respond to everyone right away.
That's why people need to be prepared for emergencies. They need to have that fire extinguisher in the kitchen, or workshop. They need to have the radios, and lanterns, and food in the pantry. They need to have that first aid kit in the trunk of the car.
And they need to know how to use them.
Someday, a disaster will strike your community. It may be a hurricane, or a tornado, or an earthquake or a flood. It might even be a pandemic.
For those who aren't prepared, I suppose they can console themselves by writing a nasty letter of complaint to the editor of their local paper.
They can whine, and complain bitterly about the system that they depended on. The one that wasn't able to respond when they needed it.
Assuming they survived, of course.
