Republicans and Marxists

[larryJ]

Well, Billy, to answer your questions.  A lot of those people who knew the storm was coming didn't have the means to get out of town or have any place to go.  I can imagine the traffic jam here if everyone tried to leave town at the same time.  It is bad enough just for those trying to get home from work.  And, yeah, there are those criminal elements who are going to take advantage of a disaster to help themselves to a big screen or a new car, or maybe they are trying to find food and water for their family.  As far as preparing for the "big one", many, and I hope most of us, have earthquake kits, and store water and canned food, etc.  I have been here for 44 years and have been through some "shake, rattle, and rollers" which are unnerving to say the least.  However, there is no warning for the "big one" like their is for a hurricane.  Am I prepared?  Probably not enough, but how do you know how much to prepare for?  Sure, the electricity will be gone (Heaven forbid I couldn't sign on to the Elk County Forum!) and there is a danger of gas leaks forbidding any open flame during the time it takes for the Gas Company to tell you its okay.  But, I got a big tent and extra blankets and stored food and water, at least for a few days, and if it gets cold, an outdoor heater and spare propane bottles to get me through. 

I don't know if the big one is coming or when and the people of Howard don't know if that thunderstorm coming through will have a tornado in it that will hit their house.  But, our tax dollars will be there hopefully to get us through a disaster.  OUR TAX DOLLARS WILL HELP THOSE WHO NEED IT NO MATTER WHAT STATE THEY LIVE IN OR WHAT KIND OF DISASTER HAPPENS.

My point was that we are the UNITED STATES which means we are as one and can be united together to help each other out.  The people that were in the Twin Towers didn't have a lot of time to duck those planes, but our tax dollars went to help those families affected including the rescue workers who could see a disaster happening. 

Larryj

[Diane Amberg]

Billy, as far as Katrina, Rita and Ike, there were also people who weren't about to have anyone tell them what to do, especially "them government types"( like somebody else I know,) and their principles cost them their lives. 

[redcliffsw]

It's good that there are Americans to stand on principles,
don't you think?

[Diane Amberg]

Most of the time. In that case though standing on their principles didn't keep their heads out of the water. Please think of the police and firefighter/ EMTs who have to go deal with those awful dead bodies. If they didn't care for themselves, I wish they would have considered us.

[Varmit]

larryJ, as to preparing enough...when you think you have enough, triple it.  Then get more for trading for what you forgot.  Link up with neighbors so that you can establish a group, but be selective.  Also, if evacuation is needed, be aware of less traveled "backroads".  Want to know more, then drop me a line.

I understand that there will alway be those incapable of caring for themselves (eldery, sick, children etc). That is where advanced, local planning comes in.  There was none for katrina.

Diane, as for principles, I value mine as much as my freedom.  Without my principles, what do I have?
As for civil service types, wasn't it the law enforcement officers who locked those "katrina" folks in the stadium?  Wasn't it the National Guard working with local L.E. officers who disarmed the citizens and allowed lawless to run rampant? Was it not FEMA who turned back truckloads of needed food, water, fuel, clothes, med.s etc?

Sorry, but the last couple of years have eroded my trust in governmental types.

[Wilma]

Billy, most of the back roads around here just lead to more back roads.  Do you by any chance live in a rural area?

[Varmit]

Yes, I live in Elk county kansas, I don't think it gets much more rual than that, except maybe alaska (lived there to).

You're right though, alot of our backroads lead, literally, to nowhere.  I was referring to second hand roads, old state highways, side streets, etc.  These are less likely to be jammed during mass evacuations than main interstate, freeways, and bypasses.  Also, less traffic means more less competion for fuel.

[Diane Amberg]

The police in New Orleans have corruption, have had for a long time, but certainly not everyone. Some made some very dumb moves, and some left their posts and were fired later. It was the National Guard who turned the trucks away on the bridges because they didn't have orders to let them through and the state officials who turned away teams of surgeons because they didn't have licenses to practice in La.!! Now how dumb was that! The docs  were totally self contained, food, water, everything, so they would not have impacted any local resources. I have one EMT friend who went down a few days later and was assigned to a unit, who after triage, cleaned wounds and gave tetanus shots. Boy, did he bring back stories. Except for at the height of the storm, nobody was locked in the dome. It was erroneously reported that there were rapes and assaults and massive out breaks of violence in the dome....not so. A few scuffles, not much of anything. The main problems were the heat, lack of meds, a shortage of water and lack of bathrooms once the sewer systems were overrun. People seemed to think the dome was to be a long term shelter. Not so. It was only set up to be a short term "shelter in place" situation until the storm had passed. They didn't have supplies for more than that. There were a lot of mistakes made. One of the biggest was made by people who could have easily gone but chose to ride it out because they had before. Then they told all the local bus drivers to go, and left empty buses behind. They sent the trains out too....empty.Totally ridiculous. 

[larryJ]

I think I need to correct myself.  I mentioned that a mass evacuation would be a nightmare.  Actually, if the "big one" hits, there won't be a mass evacuation as there would not be a total devastation of the county of Los Angeles.  There is no way that the entire population of this county (almost five times the entire population of the state of Kansas) could leave town all at the same time.  Just wouldn't happen.  Besides, there are few back roads out of town.  We got mountains to the east, mountains to the north, a large chunk of water to the west and a big desert to the south.  And if the "big one" is really huge, there won't be a county of Los Angeles.  I remember a sargeant I had in my old Army days. He was from Texas.  He told me he was buying up all the land he could in Arizona and New Mexico so when California falls into the ocean he will have a lot of beach front property.

The point I was trying to make was that the tax dollars we pay should help the entire country in a disaster.  I think here in this thread you or someone said that states should take care of themselves.  I started thinking about something while debating this in my head.  What if the United States were not states, but territorys like Canada or say Australia.  Can you imagine instead of fifty states maybe having a district for each time zone?  Too much for this old head to contemplate.  How would disaster relief work in that situation?       Larryj

[larryJ]

Adding a post script here.  The general assumption is that one should have enough to sustain them for two weeks.  Then you double that to cover for your friend who didn't bother to set anything aside.  Then, you add more for the guy down the street that you don't like, but you aren't going to let his family starve.  At this point you will have run out of storage space.  All kidding aside, you are correct, Billy, be overly prepared.  There can never be enough so you may have to depend on the government that you don't have much faith in for the last two years to keep you alive.

Larryj