Text 697, 163 rader
Skriven 2007-08-22 05:00:21 av Richard Webb (1:116/901.0)
Kommentar till text 696 av Thom LaCosta (1:261/1352.0)
Ärende: emergency comms, was welcome to grammar school, was ...
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Thom LaCosta wrote in a message to Richard Webb:
TL> Sure...and the bulk of that only becase of the incompetence you the
TL> local government.
RW> I'm just a civilian, but had you used "of" instead of "you in that
RW> last paragraph I'd agree with that.
TL> I apologize for the typo...the correct phrase was incompetence of
TL> the local government.
NO prob, figured it was just a typo. Just wanted to let lurkers know
unequivocally that in no way am I officially connected with local state or
FEderal government. I"m just a concerned citizen trying to do his part to
justify my having these amateur priveleges
by doing what I"M supposed to as it states in sec. 97.1 of "the rulz"
RW> Amen brother! YEt a lot of those people I worked with had to stay
RW> where they were, there were patients in that hospital, and they
RW> needed people to care for them until they could be gotten to
RW> somewhere adequate.
TL> OK...but if the local government could have effectively evacuated
TL> people, that need would not have existed.
True up to a point. What about the guy who got sick the night before the
mandatory evacuation order and needed lifesaving surgery? YOu can take JOe
average, put him and a piece of carry on luggage on a bus. A critical patient
requires a place with competent care. Until he can be moved to such a place,
it's best to care for him in situ and keep him stable, move him when there's a
place to put him which can deal adequately with his needs. I could tell
numerous horror stories about the government's lack of proper planning and
preparation in that whole mess, but I'd be writing a book, not an echomail
message. SPeaking of writing a book, I'm doing just that <g>. My half of first
draft is done. Waiting on the xyl. Then we review and go to second draft, then
we start shopping for a publisher.
TL> It's not only the gubmint....I saw the same things 40 plus years
TL> ago...if "Than Man" said to evacuate, that was good enough reason to
TL> disobey him.
TL> We had a critique after the hurricane to determine what we did
TL> right, and wrongh and what be could do better. Several complaints
TL> came in from some of the urban, social service industries that we
TL> had been slow in repsonding to their clients needs....That whining
TL> stopped when I played the tape of some chopper guys trying to dodge
TL> bullets while they resscued folks from roofs..
HEy we had that too. WE had nurses guarding incubators with premature babies
with their bodies. I've got a tee shirt which our head of emergency management
had made up for us. IT shows a pic of our head of security with his flak
jacket and gear on, his rifle at the ready. THe legend says "Hurricane
Katrina, CHarity/University hospitals Better patient care through superior
firepower!"
YOu ought to see the looks I get when I wear that to the rah rah emergency
management meetings around here.
RW> I scared off a guy from the Discovery channel who called me on the
RW> phone to interview me for some doccumentary they were doing.
RW> Besides saying some not so flattering things about my government he
RW> also got his feelings hurt. THe conversation went something like
RW> this:
RW> INterviewer: YOu mean you just couldn't go home at night and get
RW> away from it?
RW> Me: The hospital was surrounded by 17 feet of water. DIdn't you
RW> see any of the news coverage, or are you just dense?
TL> Ha Ha Ha!
I knew I wouldn't hear from him again <g>.
TL> What??? They didn't clamor and holdup the Feds for money to rebuild
TL> the town on the edge of the water? Shame on them.
Nope, they did the intelligent thing and moved the town inland a bit. WHen I
worked the 2001 flood from there I hung a j pole in a tree and had good simplex
comms with any of the other units I needed most of the time in case we lost the
repeater on the Iowa side we were using. Just for that reason I set my
stepdaughter up with an old REgency hr-2b and a mag mount on a cookie sheet at
another small town police department; loaned a fellow who worked another
position an ht from my wife and I's collection. HE only had the mobile in his
truck, and the ht made things a lot easier. NOw he knew that if the repeater
went belly up for any reason to go to his truck and switch to 146.52
immediately.
TL> Of course that logic would be a little hard to apply to a city that
TL> is below sea level.
RW> YEs, and that's why they need a coherent evacuation plan. Because
RW> NEw ORleans is both a seaport and a popular destination for
RW> tourists wanting to sample the cultural heritage etc.
TL> Tel ya what....when NO floods again, there are going to be thosands
TL> of folks who tell their elected reps NOT to approve rebuilding it
TL> again below sealevel. Might be better to move the residential areas
TL> up above sea level and design the port as a port.
That could work, or alternatively have an evacuation plan that really works for
the citizens that make that city work.
Better to just not allow residential areas in the flood zone however.
TL> From what I read about things down where you are....you might need a
TL> LOT of radios to backstop the 'gubmint'.
RW> I'm near Memphis Tn. these days, and we're right on the NEw Madrid
RW> fault line.
TL> Sounds like from frying pan to fire, to me.
THat it is. My mother commented something like why I didn't find somewhere
"safe" to live. I told her my sister lived right near the good ol' San Andreas
fault in So cali. THen last winter the ice storm took their utilities down when
the trees ripped the electrical service right off their house in southern IOwa.
THey decamped to a friend's, mom was sick at the time recovering from surgery.
Then, 24 hours later, their friend got more aftereffects from same ice storm,
and they have to evacuate again.
My query next time I spoke with her: "WHy don't you move somewhere safe mom?"
TL> You just need new government.
RW> THat we do. MEanwhile I help out the folks doing mission work and
RW> the occasional medical missionary with a phone patch occasionally.
TL> Rest assured, the bulk of the population won't do anything before
TL> the fact...and when the media tugs on their heart strings, no one
TL> will really ask what could have been done differently....we'll just
TL> open up the national cash register and mis-manage the funds to let
TL> people move back again.
Always the way it goes, with any disaster. SO quickly we allow the lessons
learned to be forgotten. OUr political folks don't want to talk about those
lessons and how they need to make the infrastructure robust enough and have
backup plans in place.
THis is because hardening essential infrastructure and having plans in place
requires money for both equipment and the drills that need to be conducted so
that the plan actually gets tested before it needs to swing into action. That
money has to come from somewhere, and it's easier to sell Joe Six-pack "no new
taxes!!!"
TL> But wait....some numbskull will get a huge grant to build and
TL> underwater city as a way to preserve the residential areas without
TL> moving inland.
ROtflmao!!!
73 de nf5b
Regards,
Richard
... "Think! It ain't illegal yet!" -George Clinton
--- timEd 1.10.y2k+
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