Disasters: you are alone

Disasters: you are alone:

The images that resulted from hurricane Haiyan, in the Philippines, are devastating. It is hard to believe one force of nature could have such an effect. Not that the images represent something more terrible than those of Katrina, or Sandy or, Puket or for that matter, any natural disaster.  As humans we live with nature and we understand the contract we have with it.  We know its power, we know its unpredictability and we know we can’t stop it. Although it thrills us most days with the sheerness of its beauty we also accept it can plow us under whenever it wants.

Many of us live with the anxiety, whether during specific times of the year or throughout the year that comes with earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis or typhoons, often that include residual floods, fires and always a total sense of chaos. We know the harshness of nature can, and will, hit us when we least expect it and we accept that no protocol differentiates where it occurs, who gets hit and who gets spared.  There are no entitled people, no political consideration and no priority. Nature is the quintessential democracy. Natural disasters are a part of our lives. We live with them, respect them and can do nothing about them.

But, and I mean BUT in a big way, there are things we have to know about all of them. Let’s call them the axioms of natural disasters.

First we must recognize we are alone. The moment they hit the first thing we do is protect ourselves. We can never be in the right place. There is no such place. We have to depend on instantaneous instincts to keep ourselves alive.  Since there are generally no warnings it is imperative we first secure our own survivability, then think about family and friends, but not until we are protected.

Second there will be no quick solution. For a period of time, 24 hours up to one or two weeks, we have to survive on our own or we will not survive at all.

Normally when we get hurt and go to the ER there we find doctors, nurses, medicines and help to care for our wounds. When tens of thousands of us have the same injuries, the same medical needs, at the same moment there will never be enough doctors, nurses or medications to cover us all.

Third, we will be faced with virtually no communication, no power and little or no means of coping. Phones won’t work, there be no email, texting or cell service. For a society that seems incapable, in good times, of surviving a few minutes disconnected from our mobile devices we will find ourselves in a serious, unnatural environment. 

History has proven that many with guns will take to the streets shooting, stealing, raping and assaulting whoever gets in their way. Looting is a given. No store will be safe. The facilities with food and water will go first, followed quickly by any enterprise that dispenses drugs, then virtually all stores will be looted of everything as though someone really needs, and can use, a television in the midst of an unthinkable powerless world. But the stores are there, unprotected and those who don’t care will avail themselves of whatever they want to take.  Think about stores that sell guns and ammunition. Who gets to these first?

There will be no first responders, no authority and virtually no rules nor law. Often roads will disappear, neighborhoods will lose their boundaries, power lines will be down and gas valves will be open only intensifying the threat of total personal annihilation.

Over time order will replace the chaos. Needed supplies will arrive with those nearest the supply lines first followed, at the end, by the outliers. The injured will be cared for, the dead buried. Finally the personal lives of everyone involved will be rebuilt with borrowed money, the good will of neighbors and the kindness of strangers around the world who simply want to help.

Very few, if any, of the law breakers will be prosecuted and very few lessons will actually be learned.  The survivor’s lives will begin to return to normal with memories of horror welded into their souls.

 This is not a fantasy. This at any moment can be reality. All of us are vulnerable to the    everyday threat of natural disasters.   We can provide for our own survival by accepting that it could happen to us and that we have a plan in the event that it does.  There are questions that have to be asked first.

Could we live for a week or two without phones, stores, and roofs over our heads? Could we stay warm, fed and mobile? Do we have the tools to free someone buried? Could we stop the bleeding, apply the tourniquet, lower the fever, and repair the fracture? Could we protect what we have from renegades who will operate without law, even though we ourselves don’t have guns? Is there a plan in place for how to connect with family and friends who live up the street, across town or on the other side of the country?

These are not random questions. We all know neighbors who could live as such for months based on their own skills but for most of the rest of us these are unfamiliar skills that might be essential only one time in our lives. What will we do if we need them and don’t have them?

The answer lies in getting ready now and praying we never need to use them. Don’t ever be fooled: We are alone.