Natural Disasters, A Family Affair

Hi, I hope you are doing well. I just talked with my older brother, Bob who lives in Palm Beach County, Florida and he has been hunkered down for a few days dealing with Tropical Storm Fay. They lost power intermittently and there is flooding and a tornado touched down near them but he and his family are fine. He has hurricane shutters and lives 5 miles from the coastline.

We went through Hurricane Andrew together living in Ft.Lauderdale during August of 1992 and boy does that leave an impression. The devastation was incredible, still is, you can see the scars on the landscape from an airplane very easily. I remember working in a field hospital afterwards as a nurse volunteer and the people weren't so much injured as in shock, having lost everything in 12 hours time. After that, I have never taken disaster preparation for granted, especially since I moved to Southern California 15 years ago and went through the Northridge Quake 6 months after moving here. That was my first earthquake, waking us up at 4 am in the morning with a boom and a roar like a freight train or the gates of Hell, hard to describe, the adrenaline just courses through your bloodstream and you have "lizard brain", flight or fight, Survival on your mind.

Our niece and her husband have lived near the Garden District in New Orleans for twenty years. They tell us it will take at least ten years for the city to recover. It took them over a month to get back into their home after Katrina which was undamaged. Their cat was stranded in their house during that month. Agatha the cat is perfect, the City, is still a mess three years later.

My parents (80 years old) evacuated their home in Rancho Bernardo last October due to firestorms in San Diego. Their home was surrounded by burned homes as near as 1/4 mile. The ash was piled up like snow on their property. They took their Standard poodle and their cat, Sophie with them to the hotel. My parents were lucky, they like most senior citizens have a lifetime of memorabilia and didn't lose a thing except a fence that blew over during the firestorm.

With the most recent tembler, the 5.4 a couple of weeks ago, I learned that most people get injured and die while trying to escape a building. In the United States, we have decent building codes, but overseas, well, not so much. There is a "Safety Void" created next to large objects and most injuries are from falling debris. We have safety latches on all our kitchen cabinets, not to keep the kids out, but the dishes and glassware in. We also have a flashlight next to the bed. Cell phones usually don't work during disasters. Hardwired landlines usually do. Everybody's phone book in North America has great emergency preparation information, first aid instruction, all sorts of handy little tips when the you know what hits the fan.

I just read an article the other day that said people had "Storm Amnesia" along the Coastlines and were not prepared for the current hurricane season. I am thinking, have you got to be kidding me? Red Cross recommends minimum of three day supplies for you and your pets, two weeks is probably better. I hope you live in a disaster free corner of the world, but with the way Mother Nature has been feeling and treated lately...