There’s a great story on KUOW.org out of the Seattle area on emergency preparedness. The local Red Cross is training volunteers in the event of wide scale flooding this winter in the Green River Valley. One of the soundbites in the story illustrates a problem that many cities face, mainly that people don’t have a good sense of community:
“And the general feeling was no. People don’t know their neighbors. People aren’t involved in their community. People are too busy. People are, you know, just rush, rush, rush.”
I especially liked Wilbur Chin, a volunteer who was receiving training at the Red Cross event. He turned the tables on the reporter and asked her a question:
Chin: “I have a question: Do you have a preparedness kit?”
Reporter: “You’re asking me if I’m prepared, if I have a preparedness kit?”
(I’m guessing we can take that as a “No”!)
Mr. Chin brings up a great point: you might not need an emergency preparedness kit for yourself, but you should still have one. If a disaster strikes in your community, you’ll be ready at a moment’s notice to help your neighbors. Many people don’t feel neighborly, because they don’t bother to get to know their neighbors. Yet natural disasters such as floods always make people suddenly want to volunteer to help out. Attending a training course and purchasing emergency supplies are a great way to help out your local community, even if you don’t end up needing those things for yourself.
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