Quote:
Originally Posted by Sundae Girl
We had it with ebola, a flu pandemic, SARS, avian flu... now we go through it all again.
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B-b-b-but... what are you going to
do? You can't just continue to live your life!
I stopped taking this seriously when I was forced by my company to sit in on a DHS presentation back in '08 concerning business continuity in times of disaster. I found it a bit odd that despite giving this presentation in Florida, they didn't once talk about the obvious issue: hurricanes. Instead, they spent a full hour talking mostly about what the world was going to be when the bird flu hit and how we were to prepare for it. The usual two weeks of supplies, we were told, would not be enough and so we would have to plan for a possible full 3 months of being disconnected and shut in our houses and away the outside. Two medical respirators per person per day would be needed, along with all prescription drugs, food, and water needed for the entire duration of just one wave of the disease. "Tuna and spam", the DHS rep said, were perfect because the low profile cans would "enable you to fit many cases of it under your bed." 3 months of all supplies was the minimum, 6 was the suggested.
Right.
That presentation was when I realized how fucked up and unrealistic it all is. The same agency that told me to seal up a safe room with duct tape and plastic so that I could suffocate to death in the event of a bioterror attack on my home town was trying to suggest I needed to stock up a half year's worth of canned meat and clean out my local Home Depot of N95 dust masks while not once ever suggesting I consider the ramifications of living and working just six miles from the Gulf of Mexico or have a plan in place for when the next major storm arcs in off of Cuba and turns the area into a gigantic sand bar.
Disaster preparedness, indeed. Were we not living above limestone aquifers, I would expect them to suggest constructing a backyard bunker to live in perpetuum to protect against all threats. Wouldn't want to take any chances, would we?