Why you should have emergency food on hand

tzg · Post by **tzg** » Fri Nov 02, 2012 1:12 pm

Gin: Indeed. Most people don't understand risk management until after it's needed. I can only shake my head in bewilderment at people saying things like, "They told us to get out for Irene but it wasn't so bad, it was a 'false alarm', so I thought I'd try to weather it this time." If something has a 25% chance of being disastrous and a 75% chance of being merely inconvenient, are they wrong to tell you to prepare for the 25% case? Even if it costs a little bit of money? Is it a false alarm when it turns out to be inconvenient? It's not a false alarm, it's good luck, and the money you spent to mitigate the risk that it would be disastrous is called insurance.

Turdacious · Post by **Turdacious** » Fri Nov 02, 2012 5:19 pm

Bloomberg has a message for Staten Island-- fuck you!

nafod · Post by **nafod** » Fri Nov 02, 2012 5:44 pm

You really can't make people any more aware or tell people to get out any more than we have in the last few disasters, from Katrina to this. The ability of weather-guessing is so fine now, that we easily can predict this stuff over a week ahead. While lots of folks acted on the information, lots made horrific risk decisions. That is going to continue, it's just how humanity rolls. Half of humanity is below average.

kreator · Post by **kreator** » Fri Nov 02, 2012 6:28 pm

Excluding the people whose houses were destroyed, how can anyone be in need of food in NYC? I don't understand.

The problem is that when we rely on the government to do everything for us, it really means everything. People lose the ability and desire to take care of themselves and each other and expect the gov't to do it.

I always have a B.O.B. next to my bed, enough food for several weeks, and enough clothes, tools, [non-firearm] weapons, supplies, etc for me and my roommates. Only thing I really needed to do for this was fill up water from the tap. Any other time of the year people would call me a nut, though.

Fortunately my part of Queens was fine. I signed up to do parks cleanup tomorrow.

CrapSammich · Post by **CrapSammich** » Fri Nov 02, 2012 7:23 pm

nafod wrote:You really can't make people any more aware or tell people to get out any more than we have in the last few disasters, from Katrina to this. The ability of weather-guessing is so fine now, that we easily can predict this stuff over a week ahead. While lots of folks acted on the information, lots made horrific risk decisions. That is going to continue, it's just how humanity rolls. Half of humanity is below average.

It seems like a simple decision, until you're having to make it. Then things like logistics, finances, fear, employment, families, pets all come into play. It's expensive to evacuate, shelters can be terrifying, transportation can be an issue. People don't want to leave their property for fear of looters; don't want to leave their pets if shelters won't take them.

I'm usually quick to judge others' decisions, but not after having dealt with Katrina and, more recently, Isaac. All I can say is help your neighbors.

And don't chew the gum in the MREs.

DrDonkeyLove · Post by **DrDonkeyLove** » Fri Nov 02, 2012 7:45 pm

Grandpa's Spells wrote:
Ed Zachary wrote:Nobody blamed the kids. Blame the dumbass cunt that didn't evacuate when she had the chance.
Bear in mind a lot of the people who didn't evacuate are going to be old, infirm, mentally ill, etc. "just leave" is not an option for everyone. Then you have the dumb ones.

The more I interact with truly stupid people, the more I sympathize with them when their stupidity gets them into trouble. What the fuck are they supposed to, be smart? "Yo, you should have have spontaneously developed the ability to weigh the risks and consequences better, B. Now your babies are dead. No sympathy from me, dumbass." That shit's cold.

Being stupid (vs. willfully ignorant) is a much of a bad luck handicap as being blind or having a gimpy leg, and maybe worse because with brains you can cope with other handicaps. We don't condemn the retarded for being super stupid but we do hate on the kind of stupid. Willfully ignorant of us IMO.

Batboy2/75 · Post by **Batboy2/75** » Fri Nov 02, 2012 11:01 pm

What gets me, is these people expect that the government or someone else to take care of them. That they have made absolutely no provisions to take care of themselves if the lights go out, a storm hits, or something worse happens.

It doesn't cost or take much effort to have a months worth of emergency food, an emergency radio, batteries, a flash light or two, some army surplus wool blankets, some extra gasoline w/ stabilizer, some emergency money, and a basic means of protection. Plus, a plan to grab all of your stuff, financial &personnal data and head for safer horizons if need be.

This shit isn't complicated. All you have to do is put down the TV remote for a bit. When you are done you can go right back to watching what ever Awefull program you wre watching.

Batboy2/75 · Post by **Batboy2/75** » Fri Nov 02, 2012 11:06 pm

Double post

Cave Canem · Post by **Cave Canem** » Sat Nov 03, 2012 2:00 am

Batboy2/75 wrote:What gets me, is these people expect that the government or someone else to take care of them. That they have made absolutely no provisions to take care of themselves if the lights go out, a storm hits, or something worse happens.

As someone in the middle of this shitstorm, let me say for every crying pity seeker they put on the news, there are hundreds of real Americans (even in New Jersey) who are sucking it up, cleaning up, helping their neighbors and driving on. Standing up and taking care of yourself doesn't make good TV footage.

The Venerable Bogatir X · Sat Nov 03, 2012 3:20 am

Cave Canem wrote:
Batboy2/75 wrote:What gets me, is these people expect that the government or someone else to take care of them. That they have made absolutely no provisions to take care of themselves if the lights go out, a storm hits, or something worse happens.
As someone in the middle of this shitstorm, let me say for every crying pity seeker they put on the news, there are hundreds of real Americans (even in New Jersey) who are sucking it up, cleaning up, helping their neighbors and driving on. Standing up and taking care of yourself doesn't make good TV footage.

Amen...I have no doubt that is a 100% accurate assessment. Even those dolts known as Jets fans have a tough streak and big hearts.

With that said, my 65 y/o mom who lives 20 minutes from Pt. Pleasant, had enough food, bottled water, batteries, flashlights/lanterns to keep 20 people comfortable (if needed). Full tank of gas in the Toyota RAV, too. Not that she was ever in harm's way, but BB's point does stand.

Turdacious · Post by **Turdacious** » Sat Nov 03, 2012 3:22 am

Angry residents pelted utility crews with eggs as they tried to restore power in Bridgeport, Conn., after the mayor claimed the local power company had "shortchanged" the state's largest city as it tries to recover from superstorm Sandy.

United Illuminating workers reported eggs and other objects being thrown at them a day after Mayor Bill Finch said the utility was taking care of wealthy suburbs while his constituents suffered. The unrest caused United Illuminating to pull its workers out until the city agreed to provide police protection.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/11/02/br ... z2B7sVXqLH

I know it's Kaznip.

baffled · Post by **baffled** » Sat Nov 03, 2012 4:50 am

Ed Zachary wrote:
baffled wrote:
We don't take in Haitians around here.
Just Filipinos?

You're dead to me. Both of you.

Andy83 · Post by **Andy83** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 9:16 pm

Does Bridgeport have any niggers in it?

Holland Oates · Post by **Holland Oates** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 9:17 pm

baffled wrote: You're dead to me. Both of you.

So angry. Must be the Filipino in him.

Turdacious · Post by **Turdacious** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 10:36 pm

Ed Zachary wrote:
baffled wrote: You're dead to me. Both of you.
So angry. Must be the Filipino in him.

Don't bring his husband into this.

Protobuilder · Post by **Protobuilder** » Mon Nov 05, 2012 9:50 am

Turdacious wrote:
Ed Zachary wrote:
baffled wrote: You're dead to me. Both of you.
So angry. Must be the Filipino in him.
Don't bring his husband into this.

You can take the Filipino out of Baffled...or something like that.

Protobuilder · Post by **Protobuilder** » Mon Nov 05, 2012 9:51 am

Fairing fantastic cover here.

Protobuilder · Post by **Protobuilder** » Mon Nov 05, 2012 9:55 am

I don't have American television news channels so have been wondering how this is being portrayed and received compared to Katrina.

You shouldn't judge and have to have some kind of empathy for anybody who has been through something like this. However, the segments I have seen have involved people saying how terrifying it was to need to go to the second and third stories of their beach front properties while the water came in the ground floor. Then, you have people sitting in their SUVs complaining that they need to wait forever to fill up their tanks.

Many people impacted by Katrina were poor, inner city residents who didn't have reliable transportation out of the city and no place to go other than shelters, reported as being fairly horrific.

Are people reacting the same way? Have you had a telethon to get Wall Street back on its feet yet?

DrDonkeyLove · Post by **DrDonkeyLove** » Mon Nov 05, 2012 1:54 pm

Terry B. wrote:I don't have American television news channels so have been wondering how this is being portrayed and received compared to Katrina.

You shouldn't judge and have to have some kind of empathy for anybody who has been through something like this. However, the segments I have seen have involved people saying how terrifying it was to need to go to the second and third stories of their beach front properties while the water came in the ground floor. Then, you have people sitting in their SUVs complaining that they need to wait forever to fill up their tanks.

Many people impacted by Katrina were poor, inner city residents who didn't have reliable transportation out of the city and no place to go other than shelters, reported as being fairly horrific.

Are people reacting the same way? Have you had a telethon to get Wall Street back on its feet yet?

From a human misery perspective Katrina was a much bigger disaster than Sandy. Katrina also fit a media narrative of W's disdain for the poor so the incompetence of Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin were ignored to focus on the incompetence of W. Sandy doesn't fit that narrative so the missteps of Gov. Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg seem to be mostly ignored outside of the NY Post and some right wing radio.

Just like W, his brother from another mother, O has been about photo opps and done very little. Unlike W, O has mouthed the correct words and managed to look competent and empathetic while accomplishing little so the disaster has probably helped him a tiny bit.

The misery on Staten Island and parts of Long Island is very real.

johno · Post by **johno** » Mon Nov 05, 2012 5:20 pm

Has the expectation become: No need to be prepared or to heed evacuation warnings, FEMA will save me?

Is this the new normal?

TerryB · Post by **TerryB** » Mon Nov 05, 2012 5:40 pm

I think people chose inaction prior to a disaster because we're complacent. It's not because they have faith in some alphabet soup federal agency that they've never thought of once outside of high school civics class. We want for so little. People are very rarely in a position to have to want for something, much less lose their access to food, hot water, and electricity. Why bother preparing? They've never had to.

So when all of a sudden light switches don't work and the tap runs dry, people look for a source of blame. And that's FEMA, the president they don't like, etc.

Protobuilder · Post by **Protobuilder** » Tue Nov 06, 2012 2:37 am

Same idea as previous couple of posts.

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/11/the_pro ... about.html

the federal government plays a major role in re-investing in affected areas. Lower Manhattan, for instance, is the home of Wall Street, justifying national intervention through FEMA to get the area back on its feet. But this raises the question of whether it is fair and efficient to take tax dollars collected in one geographic location and redistribute it to a region devastated by disaster. There are surely unintended consequences that come with such implicit insurance. Put bluntly, moral hazard arises as more economic activity is likely to locate in harm's way along the pretty coast.

But, again, imagine life without FEMA. Would Wall Street, the industry, stay on Wall Street? There's no good reason it has to be located in lower Manhattan, and without the assurance that FEMA would help it get on its feet, the industry and its associated would have more incentive to move to higher ground. Or New York City, which benefits inordinately from having Wall Street within its borders, would have to offer more and better protection.

Turdacious · Post by **Turdacious** » Tue Nov 06, 2012 3:24 am

That's silly-- Wall Street is insured and in an area where natural disasters are rare (most of the damage as I understand it is to the subway system anyway). Other areas not so much. This is the cheapest subsidy that Wall Street has probably ever received.

The Ginger Beard Man · Tue Nov 06, 2012 6:20 am

-One week later the subway is almost completely up. Outside Staten Island I'm not sure any neighborhoods are still without power.
-Gas is a big problem. At midnight I walked past a gas station that didn't have gas, but had a line of cars running over three blocks, parked, waiting in the hope that there might be gas tonight. They keep saying that problem will be resolved soon, and it isn't going away.
-Long Island is a mess. Very little gas, power outages for another week. One friend had power restored then lost it again. Another friend told me that if the next storm hits this week the lights are going back out. The system is held together with "tape and prayers".
-Hoboken remains fucked. No electricity til next Sunday.
-Except for gas my life has been mostly unaffected. I didn't stock up on food or evacuate. I worked through the storm. I had gas, but it was used up by Thursday. By then public transportation was mostly restored. Today it was almost completely back. Never lost electricity, either.

IGX

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