What Will It Take To Make Us Better Prepare For Life's Disasters? By
Don Adams
In this world of live TV broadcasting, it's likely few have missed
witnessing the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina.
An overwhelming sense of helplessness permeates the lives of thousands
of victims in New Orleans and other affected areas of Louisiana,
Mississippi and Alabama. You need cold steel in your heart and ice water
in your veins to not be mournful of their plight.
The pattern of Katrina prior to its cataclysmic route was coined by some
to be "nothing to worry about" as it whirled 95 miles per hour gusts
through portions of Miami eventually causing about 100 millions dollars
of estimated damage. And, this was before it locked its sight on New
Orleans.
Why do people pretend certain things won't happen to them? Like dying
prematurely ... or becoming disabled ... or running out of food and
water.
Even when a crisis situation is up close and in our face we tend to
quickly dismiss it. For example, the car accident scene we just passed
as paramedics were placing severely injured passengers into the
ambulance. You could see pools of blood on the street and twisted metal
with broken glass strewn everywhere.
Then, once beyond the accident scene we began accelerating to speeds
excessively over the posted limits. Out of sight... out of mind.
Why won't we take these real life experiences seriously enough to
prepare for the worst?
On Aug. 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew slammed into South Florida. It wiped
out Homestead, Florida City and parts of Miami before continuing
northwest across the Gulf of Mexico to strike the Louisiana coastline.
The storm was responsible for 40 deaths and $30-billion in property
damage. At the time, it was the costliest disaster in U.S history.
We have only just begun to calculate the cost of Hurricane Katrina. More
than likely, it will be beyond our capacity to imagine.
During August and September 2004, Florida was lambasted by Hurricanes
Charley, Dennis, Ivan and Jeanne. The damage was astounding and perhaps
foretold of things to come - like Katrina.
So, why don't we better prepare for these dramas of Mother Nature? Why
do we ignore the fact that what happened before will most assuredly
happen again?
On September 11, 1992 (less than one month after Andrew) Hurricane Iniki
leveled every telephone pole and hundreds of trees on the Island of
Kauai in Hawaii. Fortunately no one was killed and yet the preparation
for this disaster was postponed because it was originally forecast to be
less severe.
Planning for any disaster is filled with complications. Various
departments of local, state and federal governments often clash due to
opposing viewpoints or budget constraints.
Interesting isn't it? When panic is upon us ... when the disaster has
struck ... more often than not we rise to the occasion. And yet, we
frequently fail to prepare for future disasters that could threaten the
lives of our own family.
If we were as smart as we are compassionate, we would help ourselves and
our families by storing provisions to be used, if necessary, for our
survival. More information can be found at:
http://www.survival-center.com.
Compassion seems to come easier than wisdom. Is this because it's easier
to write a check than to spend time making a plan for our own survival?
But do our checks really go to help those we care about?
Even the Red Cross admits there are times funds end up being distributed
to parties other than those designated by the contributors.
Here's a suggestion for the current victim relief effort. Go to:
http://www.jw-media.org and follow the commentary about Katrina. I'm
confident monetary contributions sent to these folks will actually help
our needy friends in the bayou.
By the way, I am not affiliated with either of the two recommended
organizations ... and I have a great deal of respect for the work of the
Red Cross and its recent effort to honor the requested allocation of the
donors.
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