Why Prepare?

“Class, do the past 24 months provide enough perspective to review our current events? And YOUR readiness for natural and man made disasters- as “far fetched” as East Palestine or Flint Michigan’s unexpectedly disrupted air and water supply?

Observe and compare:

• War displaced 1/2 million “peaceful” Ukrainians
• years prior, on smaller SCALE, the US experienced Forest fires, “snowmageddon power outages and hurricanes ” long before the recent extra stresses of unchecked unparalled immigration, social “justice” street gangs, 300% oil prices, inflation …
• our open border has US security overworked so that a back pack or Pinto carrying a dirty bomb could necessitate mass evacuation of urban dwellers to a quiet suburb near you
• For a tiny college exercise, consider a “more likely”(?) ‘smaller’ natural event: earthquake, brush fire evacuation or a broken water, sewer or gas line … or the neighbors of the fellow in Escondido whose house was blown up by police bomb squad…
• In ANY combination a LARGE SCALE emergency may be irrelevant to your family enduring a more local 1-6 week disruption in your neighborhood services or employment or sick days from Covid or injury or …?
• (current 2023 example: University Avenue in San Diego’s City Heights has been blocked by city trenching for several months straight – shutting down mom and pop family businesses. )

Consider refugees’ EXPERIENCE

excerpt from www.surviveinplace.com

What’s going on in the Ukraine has been a frequent topic of conversation lately…with family and friends, but particularly with guys who specialized in anti-terrorism work.

email from such a survivor expressed a very unique perspective you should hear.

It said…

“You might think this could never happen to you… You would be wrong. In fact, the stories coming out of Ukraine as more than 400,000 citizens desperately try to escape the chaos of Russia’s invasion are EXACTLY how the “unprepared” will feel the shock of a wide-scale disaster of any kind in our system-dependent society.

No? Never, in the good ‘ol USA?

Fleeing Ukrainian families stacked up in a 20-mile traffic jam, desperately seeking a safe place for them and their families. -Vehicles ran out of fuel or simply broke down. Now the lucky ones live in Poland’s refugee camps.

-Some stayed in place, sleeping in their cars – trapped with nowhere else to go.

-Thousands of others pushed forward on foot… like one 26 y.o. who said, “I can’t feel my feet anymore.” as she was left to freeze outside and stay awake so that others wouldn’t steal her spot in line.

–“For 3 days, I didn’t eat a single bit of food, only water.“was the comment from one 22 y.o. refugee who found out the hard way that food and water supplies are non-existent when supply lines shut down.

–Families found themselves separated and fearful of their children being crushed in the crowds as everyone pushed their way to get across the border or grab whatever supplies could be handed out.

-People simply walked by an elderly woman who died alongside the road, her son frantically trying to give her chest-compressions for hours, trying to revive her.

These are some of the same conditions I saw in combat where everyday men, women, and children – just like you and me – turn on one another when their own survival is at stake and resources are low or non-existent.