Matt Redhawk, founder of My Patriot Supply points out that the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, the Chernobyl disasters, Hurricane Katrina and the Sumatran earthquake in 2004, as well as the Bhopal plant disaster in India, all point to the fact that we live in an unstable world fraught with both man-made as well as natural disasters.
While the infrequency of such events makes them seem like a distant memory, there are a few things that we will have to embrace as we try to make the best of a geologically, economically and socially broken world.
It happens. Sometimes they take five years, a century or even once every few generations, but they eventually happen. The major Japanese earthquake happens once every 90 or so years. It had never happened to nearly three generations of Japanese population, then it struck. It’s okay to budget for everyday disaster but it is also prudent to budget for the once-in-a-lifetime catastrophe.
You need to prepare for the worst. The effects of the Bhopal disaster are still felt up to today. The Sumatran earthquake changed the landscape and the Japanese disaster cost billions of dollars in loss and damage. Planning for worst case scenario is not pessimism, it is proper and informed allocation of resources, time and effort.
Help others out. Learn emergency volunteer skills because you might need them during an emergency. Much more importantly it will help you provide much needed support in the midst of a disaster. You have to combine your willingness to offer support with proper disaster management skills and appeal to resources for you to be truly effective.
Be flexible. After you have done all the preparation and training, when emergencies strike it will boil down to your capacity for resilience. The resources, skills and time that you acquire have their limits. Your inner resolve is just as important as all the preparations you can carry out.
Master your environment. Keep a keen eye on the goings-on around you. It is easy to become a self-distracted person who loses touch with his community, environment and events around him. You also need to learn to connect the dots. “Most emergencies tend to have tell-tale signs long before they strike”, says Matt Redhawk of My Patriot Supply.
While the infrequency of such events makes them seem like a distant memory, there are a few things that we will have to embrace as we try to make the best of a geologically, economically and socially broken world.
It happens. Sometimes they take five years, a century or even once every few generations, but they eventually happen. The major Japanese earthquake happens once every 90 or so years. It had never happened to nearly three generations of Japanese population, then it struck. It’s okay to budget for everyday disaster but it is also prudent to budget for the once-in-a-lifetime catastrophe.
You need to prepare for the worst. The effects of the Bhopal disaster are still felt up to today. The Sumatran earthquake changed the landscape and the Japanese disaster cost billions of dollars in loss and damage. Planning for worst case scenario is not pessimism, it is proper and informed allocation of resources, time and effort.
Help others out. Learn emergency volunteer skills because you might need them during an emergency. Much more importantly it will help you provide much needed support in the midst of a disaster. You have to combine your willingness to offer support with proper disaster management skills and appeal to resources for you to be truly effective.
Be flexible. After you have done all the preparation and training, when emergencies strike it will boil down to your capacity for resilience. The resources, skills and time that you acquire have their limits. Your inner resolve is just as important as all the preparations you can carry out.
Master your environment. Keep a keen eye on the goings-on around you. It is easy to become a self-distracted person who loses touch with his community, environment and events around him. You also need to learn to connect the dots. “Most emergencies tend to have tell-tale signs long before they strike”, says Matt Redhawk of My Patriot Supply.
