Emergency Preparedness;
Part I.My Personal History in Emergency Preparedness
_
It’s been a long, long time for me (60 years) of walking my path in the world and trying to devise ways to be equal to the challenges that have arisen.
1 THROUGH THE EYES OF A CHILD
Fear has not always been my predominant emotion. Almost the earliest thing I remember is a hurricane when I was very young indeed, 2 or 3 years old, standing on a window seat in the dim light, my mother lighting lamps. The rain and the wind were incredible. She told me I was jumping up and down, saying ‘a hurricky storm, a hurricky storm’. I felt no fear, but rather was energized by the weather. It still has this effect on me, although I have learned in years since that there are times one has to get back out of the way- to clear the floor and let Mother Nature dance.
When I started elementary school, it was the early years of the Cold War. People were building fallout shelters, and it had been decided to train the young children in emergency preparedness. We were taught a sheltering exercise during drills (later referred to as ‘bend over and kiss your ass goodbye’). Formally speaking, the alarm would go off, we would get up from our desks, go out into the hallway, get down on our knees crouched against the hallway walls, and cover our heads with our hands. Not praying to Mecca, but much the same posture. This was supposed to assist in our survival of a nuclear attack.
Childhood is a strange time; there is a lot that happens to a child that can be accepted as a matter-of-fact; less menacing than more immediate threatening personal interactions. I didn’t really know to what degree I was being conditioned to anticipate disaster.
(Interesting side notes; 1. Review of building plans for barns designed at that time and still maintained in the records of the local agricultural extension office show the provision of fallout shelters for the cattle designed into the barns. 2. In the later years of the Cold War, my mother shared with me a fact she had learned. In the event of nuclear fallout, one of the problems is cows eating contaminated feed, and the milk becoming radioactive. It had been communicated (and this is quite ingenious, really) that the half-life of some of the radioactive elements is short enough that if you make cheese and age it, the cheese will no longer be radioactive after the ageing period. Review of the recent post-tsunami incident in Japan shows that, indeed, the milk can become contaminated in this way. Strange that, more than 40 years later, as I am indeed a cheesemaker, this should come up again. Not a fact I hope to have to use, but something to pass on nonetheless.)
2. ADOLESCENCE
I grew up reading voraciously; among many others, the works of Ayn Rand and Philip Wylie, and trying to see what the world was like outside of my small part of it. As my parents took us to town, they would caution us to stay away from the waterfront (my stepfather had been a guard in NYC on the waterfront during WWII, and he knew what a rough place that could be.) I remember, before I was old enough to drive, looking out the window of the car and wondering how I would cope if I was alone on the streets.
After I grew up, I worked on the waterfront for a year, and that milieu has become less threatening. The thought still occurs, as I drive back and forth to work, how I would cope if I was alone on the streets, but now it is the homeless that I see, out my window. I am no longer young, I will not be able to work forever, and the world is a very uncertain place.
3 THE INCREASING DRIVE FOR SELF-SUFFICIENCY
When I was 21, I graduated college, and followed my husband-to-be to Denver. Colo. I spent 4 years getting a master’s degree and 2 years working in a research laboratory. But images of possible world changes did not leave me alone. When I read ‘The Sheep Look Up’, by John Brunner, it coalesced with other life events, and I realized that I was not going to spend the rest of my life in research. Indeed, I could not rest easy wondering what would happen to Denver if the supply lines were cut. A lot of people would starve.
4 HOMESTEADING
Through the twists and turns of life events, we ended up as a couple in West Virginia, building an underground house, and homesteading for 12 years.
It was a huge change for me, but one that I relished and needed. It took 3 years to build the house, and my son was born 2 weeks after we moved in. When he was a year old, I bought my first cow, and began an enduring relationship with this species, which continues. I’ve been milking cows for over 30 years.
The farm in West Virginia became an intrinsic part of my life, my growth, my heart, and my soul. I started my learning of so much there; milking, cheese making, fence building, haying, maple syrup making, beekeeping, gardening, midwifery, cider making, weaving, spinning, quilt making, soap making, candle making, butchering, and putting food by. It was a crèche for my learning, and a good place for my son to spend his early years.
5 CHANGE OF VENUE
I should have been able to see it coming (but I didn’t) that my then-husband’s compulsive infidelities would eventually lead to the end of our marriage. He left the marriage for the 3rd time when my son was 5, and we divorced. I still have the land, and hope my son may have further history with it. After I got a nursing degree, we moved to Maine (where I had grown up), and this is where I have been since that move.
6 DIFFERENT FARM, NEW CATTLE, SAME INITIATIVE
By 1995, I had been in a second marriage for 4 years. I had been ‘without cattle’ for 5 years. My mother had become ill and died, and her land was for sale. Not without turmoil, I was able to establish the fact with my new husband that I had enough funds of my own to be able to purchase her place. He was very reluctant, and I finally told him I was going to buy it and move, with or without him. He came with me. In 1996, I started a new herd of cattle.
In West Virginia, I had thought of my operation as a farm. Here in Maine, over the last 15 years, I have come to realize that it is not so much that I am running a farm. Rather, I am participating in an ecosystem.
7 INVOLVEMENT WITH OFFICIAL EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS INITIATIVES
By 2001, I was farming, nursing, and had worked with the local Fire and Rescue, ultimately getting my paramedic license in 2007. For 3 years I was a member of the Maine Medical Response team, a branch of the National Metropolitan Medical Response System. I took classes with FEMA and Homeland Security.
9/11/2001 was a huge paradigm shift for me. My life became more involved with various levels of emergency preparedness. I joined the American Red Cross in Nov of 2001, assisting with local disaster response. In 2003 I responded to tornadoes in Missouri, and in 2004 responded to hurricanes in Alabama.
During my time with the ARC, one of our work groups dealt with emergency preparedness planning for disasters in the City of Portland (terrorist attacks on the Maine mall and other such scenarios). I remember the comment that ‘In the event of a disaster involving New England, people in Boston will start driving north. They’ll drive til they are out of gas, and then they’ll be your problem'. I attended hospital emergency preparedness meetings, and developed a presentation called ‘Emergency preparedness for nurses’. My last response with the American Red Cross was the Patriot’s Day flood in 2007.
8 DISILLUSIONMENT
Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) it has became increasing clear that my job in emergency preparedness is here, in this or another ecosystem, not responding with a state police SWAT team in northern Maine, or Boston, or other nationally remote points. The pieces of the puzzle are here. The questions, and the ways to get the answers, are here. The need is, or will be, here.
9 WHAT COMES NEXT
And the questions are many. The world is changing, in too many ways to count. Mother Nature’s dances are increasingly large and violent. Humans are finding that an umbrella does not suffice for shelter from the rain these days. Institutions that we have trusted, habits that we have grown used to, are not working well for us. The media are increasingly disconnected from what is important, and too many lies are told to encourage us to buy things we do not need.
It is past time for us to examine all aspects of our lives and to prioritize our needs and wants. Each thing that is a legitimate need – such as food, clothing, and shelter- is being filled, more or less, from established sources at this time. What we need to do is look at the stability of these sources and in each case, figure out a backup plan against the time- soon or late- when these present sources may fail.
10 PLANNING
What are your needs? What are your dependencies? What are your resources? What are your vulnerabilities? What is your plan?
These questions are global, and can be applied with a broad focus, or irised down to address the minutia that comprise daily existence. In each case, one is wise to consider all the domains; the physical, the mental, the emotional, and the spiritual, when considering the question and evolving an answer or a strategy.
As all people do not have the same resources or the same desires, there is no set of one-size-fits-all answers. But all of us, more or less, are impacted by the huge changes going on in the physical world and the sociopolitical environment in which we live.
It’s been a long, long time for me (60 years) of walking my path in the world and trying to devise ways to be equal to the challenges that have arisen.
1 THROUGH THE EYES OF A CHILD
Fear has not always been my predominant emotion. Almost the earliest thing I remember is a hurricane when I was very young indeed, 2 or 3 years old, standing on a window seat in the dim light, my mother lighting lamps. The rain and the wind were incredible. She told me I was jumping up and down, saying ‘a hurricky storm, a hurricky storm’. I felt no fear, but rather was energized by the weather. It still has this effect on me, although I have learned in years since that there are times one has to get back out of the way- to clear the floor and let Mother Nature dance.
When I started elementary school, it was the early years of the Cold War. People were building fallout shelters, and it had been decided to train the young children in emergency preparedness. We were taught a sheltering exercise during drills (later referred to as ‘bend over and kiss your ass goodbye’). Formally speaking, the alarm would go off, we would get up from our desks, go out into the hallway, get down on our knees crouched against the hallway walls, and cover our heads with our hands. Not praying to Mecca, but much the same posture. This was supposed to assist in our survival of a nuclear attack.
Childhood is a strange time; there is a lot that happens to a child that can be accepted as a matter-of-fact; less menacing than more immediate threatening personal interactions. I didn’t really know to what degree I was being conditioned to anticipate disaster.
(Interesting side notes; 1. Review of building plans for barns designed at that time and still maintained in the records of the local agricultural extension office show the provision of fallout shelters for the cattle designed into the barns. 2. In the later years of the Cold War, my mother shared with me a fact she had learned. In the event of nuclear fallout, one of the problems is cows eating contaminated feed, and the milk becoming radioactive. It had been communicated (and this is quite ingenious, really) that the half-life of some of the radioactive elements is short enough that if you make cheese and age it, the cheese will no longer be radioactive after the ageing period. Review of the recent post-tsunami incident in Japan shows that, indeed, the milk can become contaminated in this way. Strange that, more than 40 years later, as I am indeed a cheesemaker, this should come up again. Not a fact I hope to have to use, but something to pass on nonetheless.)
2. ADOLESCENCE
I grew up reading voraciously; among many others, the works of Ayn Rand and Philip Wylie, and trying to see what the world was like outside of my small part of it. As my parents took us to town, they would caution us to stay away from the waterfront (my stepfather had been a guard in NYC on the waterfront during WWII, and he knew what a rough place that could be.) I remember, before I was old enough to drive, looking out the window of the car and wondering how I would cope if I was alone on the streets.
After I grew up, I worked on the waterfront for a year, and that milieu has become less threatening. The thought still occurs, as I drive back and forth to work, how I would cope if I was alone on the streets, but now it is the homeless that I see, out my window. I am no longer young, I will not be able to work forever, and the world is a very uncertain place.
3 THE INCREASING DRIVE FOR SELF-SUFFICIENCY
When I was 21, I graduated college, and followed my husband-to-be to Denver. Colo. I spent 4 years getting a master’s degree and 2 years working in a research laboratory. But images of possible world changes did not leave me alone. When I read ‘The Sheep Look Up’, by John Brunner, it coalesced with other life events, and I realized that I was not going to spend the rest of my life in research. Indeed, I could not rest easy wondering what would happen to Denver if the supply lines were cut. A lot of people would starve.
4 HOMESTEADING
Through the twists and turns of life events, we ended up as a couple in West Virginia, building an underground house, and homesteading for 12 years.
It was a huge change for me, but one that I relished and needed. It took 3 years to build the house, and my son was born 2 weeks after we moved in. When he was a year old, I bought my first cow, and began an enduring relationship with this species, which continues. I’ve been milking cows for over 30 years.
The farm in West Virginia became an intrinsic part of my life, my growth, my heart, and my soul. I started my learning of so much there; milking, cheese making, fence building, haying, maple syrup making, beekeeping, gardening, midwifery, cider making, weaving, spinning, quilt making, soap making, candle making, butchering, and putting food by. It was a crèche for my learning, and a good place for my son to spend his early years.
5 CHANGE OF VENUE
I should have been able to see it coming (but I didn’t) that my then-husband’s compulsive infidelities would eventually lead to the end of our marriage. He left the marriage for the 3rd time when my son was 5, and we divorced. I still have the land, and hope my son may have further history with it. After I got a nursing degree, we moved to Maine (where I had grown up), and this is where I have been since that move.
6 DIFFERENT FARM, NEW CATTLE, SAME INITIATIVE
By 1995, I had been in a second marriage for 4 years. I had been ‘without cattle’ for 5 years. My mother had become ill and died, and her land was for sale. Not without turmoil, I was able to establish the fact with my new husband that I had enough funds of my own to be able to purchase her place. He was very reluctant, and I finally told him I was going to buy it and move, with or without him. He came with me. In 1996, I started a new herd of cattle.
In West Virginia, I had thought of my operation as a farm. Here in Maine, over the last 15 years, I have come to realize that it is not so much that I am running a farm. Rather, I am participating in an ecosystem.
7 INVOLVEMENT WITH OFFICIAL EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS INITIATIVES
By 2001, I was farming, nursing, and had worked with the local Fire and Rescue, ultimately getting my paramedic license in 2007. For 3 years I was a member of the Maine Medical Response team, a branch of the National Metropolitan Medical Response System. I took classes with FEMA and Homeland Security.
9/11/2001 was a huge paradigm shift for me. My life became more involved with various levels of emergency preparedness. I joined the American Red Cross in Nov of 2001, assisting with local disaster response. In 2003 I responded to tornadoes in Missouri, and in 2004 responded to hurricanes in Alabama.
During my time with the ARC, one of our work groups dealt with emergency preparedness planning for disasters in the City of Portland (terrorist attacks on the Maine mall and other such scenarios). I remember the comment that ‘In the event of a disaster involving New England, people in Boston will start driving north. They’ll drive til they are out of gas, and then they’ll be your problem'. I attended hospital emergency preparedness meetings, and developed a presentation called ‘Emergency preparedness for nurses’. My last response with the American Red Cross was the Patriot’s Day flood in 2007.
8 DISILLUSIONMENT
Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) it has became increasing clear that my job in emergency preparedness is here, in this or another ecosystem, not responding with a state police SWAT team in northern Maine, or Boston, or other nationally remote points. The pieces of the puzzle are here. The questions, and the ways to get the answers, are here. The need is, or will be, here.
9 WHAT COMES NEXT
And the questions are many. The world is changing, in too many ways to count. Mother Nature’s dances are increasingly large and violent. Humans are finding that an umbrella does not suffice for shelter from the rain these days. Institutions that we have trusted, habits that we have grown used to, are not working well for us. The media are increasingly disconnected from what is important, and too many lies are told to encourage us to buy things we do not need.
It is past time for us to examine all aspects of our lives and to prioritize our needs and wants. Each thing that is a legitimate need – such as food, clothing, and shelter- is being filled, more or less, from established sources at this time. What we need to do is look at the stability of these sources and in each case, figure out a backup plan against the time- soon or late- when these present sources may fail.
10 PLANNING
What are your needs? What are your dependencies? What are your resources? What are your vulnerabilities? What is your plan?
These questions are global, and can be applied with a broad focus, or irised down to address the minutia that comprise daily existence. In each case, one is wise to consider all the domains; the physical, the mental, the emotional, and the spiritual, when considering the question and evolving an answer or a strategy.
As all people do not have the same resources or the same desires, there is no set of one-size-fits-all answers. But all of us, more or less, are impacted by the huge changes going on in the physical world and the sociopolitical environment in which we live.
A YOU-TUBE OFFERING ON THE SUBJECT OF SURVIVAL
I just found this, watched the entire thing, it seems to have a lot of the survival high points included. Your mileage may vary, but accumulating the skills and resources will not be amiss, whatever the outcome may be.