The earthquake that struck the Republic of Haiti on January 12th was a disaster and a tragedy. For anyone unaware, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck close to the capitol of Port-au-Prince. Thousands are thought to be dead; historical buildings, hospitals, and what infrastructure they had was demolished. My hat goes off to all the people going down there to help, and countries around the world pitching in to help them in this time of need.
But let this be a wake up call to all Americans. A lot of us are near major fault lines, including one here in Kentucky (New Madrid Fault Line), and a major earthquake could happen at a moments notice. This goes to show that Americans need to realize the threat of disasters that are out of our control, and get prepared for them. Food storage, emergency kits, and supplies you would need in the event of widespread power outages and service failures are so important. How much better off would the people in New Orleans after Katrina, or the people of Haiti be if they all were equipped with a 72 hour emergency kit?
We can’t expect anyone to come to our rescue, and we must be prepared to help ourselves and our families in the event of a disaster. Even the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) urges Americans to create a plan, stock up on supplies, and get prepared. If the disaster in Haiti doesn’t prove the point, then look at what happened in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck. We’re all at risk, and we all need to be prepared. One old sayin’ that comes to mind is “better to be safe, than sorry.”
2 comments
Diane
January 17, 2010 at 9:15 pm (UTC 0)
As a Katrina survivor, I still ask people not to judge too quickly the preparedness of people in a devastating disaster. True, many people were not prepared and should have been. However, a monster earthquake, hurricane, whatever, will wipe out everything, preps and all, for many people right in its path.
Not an excuse not to prepare, for sure. We have to hope we're fortunate enough to be enough out of the direct path, or otherwise fortunate, for our preps to survive and help us and others.
But still, we have to remember that many victims who are destitute and completely at the mercy of outside help DID have supplies on hand before nature snatched them all away. We all hate to become completely dependent on outside help, but it can happen to anyone, no matter how prepared.
matthiasj
January 18, 2010 at 5:51 pm (UTC 0)
Good point Diane. We had a tornado hit our neighborhood, it wiped out most houses but ours was still intact. Preps or no preps if your whole home is flattened you're dependent on others to help. We prep not only to help ourselves, but others in the time of need.