Readiness is All
I am sick unto death of the blame game.There. I've said it. I don't give a good damn who is responsible for the situation on the Gulf Coast. As far as I'm concerned, it was an act of God. It was Mother Nature's Premenstrual Syndrome. No politician is personally responsible for the wind or water, or the levee breaking.
I find discussions to the contrary wholly partisan and unhelpful and even distracting. The fact of the matter is that hurricanes are a reality on the Gulf Coast as much as tornadoes victimize the Kansas - Oklahoma - Texas panhandle region, earthquakes and landslides plague California, and flooding is a risk to people who live on the Mississippi. I realize that Florida and the Carolinas usually bear the brunt of the hurricanes, but this is no reason to get soft.
I'm all about personal responsibility. You all know that. So what I don't understand is how so many people could be caught unprepared. I feel for them all, really I do, but I have to ask...what was their Plan B? I've lived in tornado alley, where tornadoes are a fact of life. You can't see a tornado coming the way you can a hurricane. Tornadoes pop up and dissipate rapidly, leaving nothing but destruction in their wake. Hurricanes, on the other hand, are much more readily anticipated. You can see them coming with several days notice. Both pack a mighty wallop, but of the two, you must admit that it is easier to get whacked unprepared by a tornado.
So what do we do? People who live with tornadoes as a real threat have plans. You either go to the basement or a bathroom in the interior of your home. You make sure you have water and some sort of canned food in case the worst happens. Where I'm from in Kansas, it is possible to be snowed in when the big snowstorm hits. You can literally be 20 miles from town, without electricity and water for several days before services are restored. So what do people do? They have plans. They may have a wood burning stove, stockpiles of canned food, and a windmill for pumping water from the well. Count on it. If they have livestock to tend, chances are they either have horses or snowmobiles for just such situations.
To me, the whole notion that so many people got caught unprepared is the epitome of recklessness. If I were living on the Gulf Coast, you can bet your sweet patoot that I'd have a Plan B, just in case everything went to hell. You have to know the risks you face where you live. If you don't, well...let's just say Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection will kick into high gear.
Readiness is All. Prepare, or die. Don't blame others for your own inadequacies or your failure to think ahead. And if the worst does come to pass, Cowboy Up! Suck it up and move on with surviving and rebuilding. Don't bitch and moan incessantly, decrying the government who should have known better or done more sooner, etc.
You are your own first line of defense. It is up to you.
The bitchers and moaners are the ones who used to get eaten - remember that.
And get a damn plan, would ya?
