Disaster Plans

While I'm marginally aware of the potential for disaster, it seems I'm far less concerned than are others. I live in an area in which I don't think that terrorists will attack, the opinion of Jesse Ventura notwithstanding. In addition to having believed that he, himself, was a terrorist target, he believe that the Mall of America was also a target, yet chose to provide terrorists with a possible two-for-one deal by broadcasting his weekly radio show...from the MOA.

I don't worry so much about the weather either, but have started to notice that there's a lot more awareness of disaster preparedness lately. In some ways that makes sense, due to the apparent increase in disasters; I don't know if it's truly an increase or merely an increase of our awareness, given the transition over the last century of countries such as Bhutan that were isolated from the rest of the world due to distance and lack of modern infrastructure having become bastions of the electronic age.

Infrastructure

While I don't worry too much about natural disasters, I'm much more concerned about loss of infrastructure. It was a huge shock to lose a major bridge, and spurred me on to add some disaster-related items to my car. Like everyone else, I have jumper cables, various car-related fluids, window scrapers, boots, a coat, blanket and mittens in my trunk. I have a gallon jug of water and scissors too. In case of unexpected trips to the cemetery. Last August, I added a few things: rope; duct tape; waterproof container of matches; tinfoil camping blanket; work gloves; candles; dust masks; non-latex gloves; a multi-function radio and a spotlight. In theory I should have food items, in case of car trouble or getting stranded. I typically bring beverages with me on a road trip of any length and during the winter tend to add a few non-perishable high-energy items.

While I understand that bridges and buildings are made to give in the wind, I get nervous when I can feel the movement. For example, I've been on the rollercoaster on top the Stratosphere, which has since been replaced by other rides, and was fine on the rollercoaster but nervous beforehand because I could feel movement.

Crossing bridges makes me nervous; if I'm stopped on a bridge I can sometimes feel vibrations. I don't like it. Two weeks before the bridge collapse, two friends and I had walked across the bridge that you see in the above right photo, the one that didn't collapse. At the time, the only sidewalk was on the side away from the freeway, and I didn't enjoy walking above the water. Because I could feel the movement of the bridge, it crossed my mind that the bridge could collapse. Fortunately, it didn't.
The rational part of my brain realized that it was impossible; bridges don't collapse.

I no longer live in that world. The new bridge is well on its way to completion; I have crossed the parallel bridge a few times, purely out of necessity and am nervous there due to the high volume of traffic and excessive time it takes to cross. There are a few other bridges that have absorbed excess traffic so also take much longer than previously.

While I'm nervous about infrastructure, I'm not paralyzed by that nervousness; if I were that nervous, I would be non-functional. And that would be silly.

Summer is Disaster Season

While I don't worry too much about disaster striking, there have been a lot of awful things happening all over the world, the US and my state. While I think disaster awareness month is in the spring, I recommend that you take time to think about the types of disasters likely to hit your geographic area and whether you're prepared.

In my area, we have tornadoes, hail and snowstorms. If there's a tornado, there's really nothing you can do besides go to the safest place where you are. We have basements around here, so the safest place is usually the basement away from windows, rather than the storm cellar like in The Wizard of Oz. About all you can do is try to get inside. There was a huge tornado near here earlier this summer that caused millions of dollars in damage. A few years ago, wouldn't have been many houses in the area, but it was developed during the housing boom. There was also a huge hail storm which caused a lot of damage.

Winter has been pretty quiet lately, so no worries; in the event of a power outage, I have candles, matches, flashlights and batteries. For blizzards and being trapped at home due to lack of plowing? I typically have food and beverages that would get me through.

I'm at a high enough point geographically that flooding isn't a consideration; there have been floods, but not near here. Flash flood warnings came and went while we had some serious rain going on, but luckily occurred at times I was home. The not working has interfered with my plans to buy new tires, so I'm a bit nervous about driving in heavy rain.