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| Moore, Oklahoma is now No More, Anywhere by Commander Tansin A. Darcos 05/21/2013, 6:41pm PDT | ||||
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| You ask anyone in America what the date of September 11 means, and they can tell you about an attack upon the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon, and another small town that almost nobody outside of that part of that state had ever heard of, Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Before two days ago, you ask anyone in that part of Oklahoma about May 3, and they'd probably have been able to tell you why it was important to them, the 1999 tornado that destroyed half of the town of Moore, Oklahoma. Which, unfortunately, they can now say that it was the day "a tornado destroyed the other half" of their town. Yesterday, after 3:16 pm, for anyone from there who wanted to describe how bad it was, all that they had to say was "Worse than May 3," and you knew it was utter devastation. The people of this small town of 55,000, some 11 miles from Oklahoma City, experienced something that no other place has, and that nobody would want to be famous for. In all of history, there have only been five tornadoes whose damage costs have definitely, or will definitely reach or exceed, a billion dollars, and the town of Moore, Oklahoma has had two of them. As they did 14 years ago, they will rebuild; these people are hardy people, as the dust storms and the depression of the 1930s tested their forefathers and ancestors. One good thing that will come out of this is that probably every or nearly every school in the state of Oklahoma will be pushed to install a safe room for their students like a reinforced basement, a thing that most places were dragging their feet on because it was expensive, costing upwards of a million dollars per school. Yeah, well, in that part of the country it's probably something that should be considered a matter of "the cost of doing business," that you have to cover because the possibility is very likely you will suffer some disaster like this. A city I lived in, Long Beach, California, suffered a devastating series of earthquakes shortly after 5pm on a school day in 1933. So many schools in the city were horribly damaged, some devastated as bad as the complete destruction of at least one school suffered in Moore - fortunately the 1933 earthquake was after school was over or there probably would have been a horrible death toll - that Long Beach has one of the most strict building codes for construction of schools to resist earthquake damage. They learned then and there, and perhaps others will learn from this example, of how horrible the Wrath of Mother Nature can be. But have we? What's your problem in your area? Wherever you live, there's bound to be something that you have a problem with that could spell disaster or leave you needing to cover a natural disaster. Here in the Washington, DC area our biggest problem tends to be that when we have bad storms, PEPCO's power lines won't be able to stand the strain and we lose power for a few days. But it can be worse. Let this be a lesson to all of us: Are we prepared? Are you? Do you have bottled water and food for, oh, at least three days around? If you have snow in the area, do you have a snow shovel at home, and one in every car along with a bag of kitty litter (kitty litter is a much more effective means of making traction possible on snow than sand or ice melter although it's not a bad idea to have ice melter too.) What can or do you expect in your area as a disaster or potential disaster that you can reasonably foresee as possible, and do you have the resources around to last until things go back to normal or close to it? Think about your car: You should have (1) flares; (2) a reflective triangle; (3) a couple of full-size orange road cones like highway workers have in case you have to change a tire or make other emergency on-the road or shoulder repairs or service and either can't wait for road service or don't have it (or to at least mark the road behind your car if you are waiting for your road service), you can buy them at Home Depot, I had a set in my car; (4) a lift-style jack similar to the ones used by car repair places, much easier to use than the jack supplied with your car, and at $20 (when I was buying them) cheap at twice the price; (5) a set of jumper cables, lots of times you can find someone who'll give you a jump but they don't have cables; in one case, I came across a couple who had broken down for that exact reason, their battery went dead and they didn't have cables, but I did, and it was on the very day that I called an associate of mine who could come jump my car when it died in the parking lot of my office; (6) extra oil, power steering fluid and transmission fluid (make sure you have the right kind; use the wrong transmission fluid and you'll get smoke at a minimum and maybe worse. GM cars use Dexron and Ford uses Type F, and everyone else probably uses one or the other of these, again, make sure you know which is the right kind of both transmission and power steering fluid you need for your car); (7) an unopened can of D.O.T. Class 3 Brake Fluid (lasts a long time if never opened; once you do open because you need to top off your brake fluid reservoir you must carefully reclose it so it doesn't get contaminated and find out how long it's good for once it is opened); (8) an empty red plastic gasoline can (do not normally carry gas in your car except when transporting it such as to a disabled car or when refilling a lawnmower or similar equipment); (9) a gallon or two of water for the radiator and for drinking or for cleanups (you'll thank your lucky stars that you have paper towels and water if you have some rugrat and (s)he pukes in the back seat after over-indulging in hotdogs, chocolate candy, popcorn and cotton candy before riding a roller coaster, but if you're a parent you probably are far more experienced in this than a lifelong bachelor such as myself could ever be). These are the things you should have anyway just to run your car on the highway because it will make it a whole lot easier if something goes wrong and except for the consumables they'll last long enough you can transfer them to the next three cars you own. As far as your home, I've mentioned a few things but let me summarize, (1) enough water to drink and non-perishable food for at least 3-4 days to a week per person; (2) anything you'd need for normal weather conditions which means a snow shovel, snow melt, sand and kitty litter if it snows where you are; (3) a battery powered radio and extra batteries; (4) work gloves in case you have to move stuff around like if a tree limb falls; (4) some tools for general repairs, possibly a cheap hacksaw or something to cut stuff; and, (5) as bad as it sounds, if you think things might get really bad, firearm(s) and ammo, and, if you do get them, for the love of God get training so you know how to use them and when you may legally use them so that if you did, you can know that the shooting was justifyable (and whether or not you do have them, do not advertise the fact whether you do or don't have them so you aren't either a target for robbery because you're known to be unarmed or a potential easy place to get a firearm if you do and you're not around). You also should test every smoke detector each month and replace them as needed; often you can get one for free from the fire department. I'd recommend a minimum of one on each floor and every bedroom. When you put in a smoke detector, write the month and the year ten years later with a black magic marker on the face of the detector itself, e.g. if you put one in this week, you'd write "5/2023" on it; that's when it expires. There's a small amount of radioactive material in a smoke detector, good practice is to replace them at least every 10 years, test the alarm monthly and change out the battery every time you reset your clock at the start and end of Daylight Savings Time (or twice a year if you live in Arizona (or Indiana if they still don't follow DST)). I know I've let things slack off and it's worse for me, I'm handicapped and if things go really bad I can't even walk away like a normal person, I've not thought about it. I'm going to make sure I have some bottled water around, perhaps buying one every couple of months, and rotating out what is here so that it doesn't spoil by using it from time to time (I had no idea that water actually spoils, like food, unless it is vacuum packed). I do keep at least a 1/2 dozen cans of soup on hand like cream of mushroom primarily in case I get stuck or I'm short on money at the end of some month, but I think I need to increase that to enough to have a week's worth of food that doesn't need to be heated and I can eat even if there's no gas or electricity. Oh, forgot matches; as ridiculous as it sounds, we have an electrically powered gas stove so it does not need to have a pilot but it means you need matches if the electricity goes out in order to use the gas stove. (Can't use the oven at all because the thermostat needs electric power.) I'll start to stock up the stuff I need over the next two or three weeks to a month or two. (I can't do all of it at once; I have to tote whatever I need home in my hands.) Preparation here doesn't have to be expensive; you're not preparing for Zombie Apocalypse or the Collapse of Western Civilization, just long enough to manage what you've seen in the past in your area is the amount of time for your region to come back from a typical weather (or, in a worst-case man-made) disaster happens, which, around here, is usually about a week. And what is likely to happen. My guess is you're probably looking at no more than $50 (except for firearms; you can say you don't need them or don't want to have them, it's your decision and you have to decide whether or not you do or don't). So think about it. The people of Moore, Oklahoma, will rebuild, as they have, and they will come back, and then "they'll be back on the map again." Make sure, if something happens where you live, that you can. And maybe years from now you'll be glad at the $50 you "wasted" on preparing for the disaster that never happened to you. |
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