Emergency officials in India gave locals a scare with a disaster drill yesterday. Onlookers thought there was a bomb scare on a plane at the Delhi Airport:
“All the passengers were asked to disembark the flight and it was thoroughly checked,” a senior security official at the airport told IANS.
“It was a mock drill,” an official of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), said after the all-clear had been sounded.
The Times of India article doesn’t make it clear whether the civilians on the plane even knew it was a drill. Note to emergency officials: Let the press know when you’re planning a major disaster drill, so people won’t think there’s actually a major disaster going on.
The fact that so many governments are practicing disaster/bomb/emergency drills gives people some comfort, I suppose. Here are some questions for you, though: Are YOU practicing emergency drills with your family? Have you planned how to communicate with each other in an emergency situation? Do you have plans to meet up in a pre-arranged location if communications are down? Do you have enough supplies in your home to bunker down until a dangerous situation has passed? If you had to evacuate your home for a time, do you have a portable emergency kit to sustain your family?
Government agencies around the world are practicing emergency drills because they know they’re actually NOT prepared for every contingency. If you’re not practicing emergency drills with your family, what does that mean?
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