View Poll Results: Would you like an "Emergency Preparedness" Forum?

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Thread: Would you like an Emergency Preparedness Forum?

  1. #21
    Senior Member bae's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by onlinemoniker View Post
    ... "emergency preparedness" or however it's named, sounds paranoid. Not like simple living at all.
    Paranoid?

    I've been spending the past several months learning the practice of technical rescue, which includes rope/high-angle rescue, confined space rescue, urban search and rescue, wilderness search and rescue, vehicle extrication and stabilization, rapid intervention team s&r work (rescuing downed firefighters), emergency command/organization, communications, and a few other odds and ends.

    It's about 3-4 days a week of intensive work. For events that rarely (except for the auto wreck and wilderness s&r work) rarely happen around here. It requires me to work out 2-3 hours a day and eat a special diet just to stay in shape to attempt the work.

    Yesterday, about 2pm, my team was in class. We'd been at it since 8am, solving difficult auto extrication problems and learning new techniques with a super genius instructor who came over to lend a hand. We had every single tool on the rescue truck engaged in working on a 4-car problem that had been set up for us...

    When our pagers went off with a real alarm. Some fellow had fallen several hundred feet down a cliff, in a remoteish spot on this remote island.

    Within an hour of that call, we had repacked up our gear, made it to the site, located the patient, got down the cliff, provided on-scene medical care with several paramedics and EMTs, and got him into a Coast Guard helicopter with a hot landing/loading in a place I wouldn't have bet could be done, with the help of the Coast Guard rescue swimmers. We had him most of the way to the landing pad of the best regional trauma center before the Golden Hour was up.

    None of our team was injured during the operation, which was a minor miracle in itself.

    Within 2.5 hours of the call, we were back at the station, our gear back in service, and resuming our training. The Coast Guard swimmer they left behind (because of weight restrictions) participated in our training for the rest of the day, nice to see an enthusiastic lifelong learner.

    Paranoia, or preparation and practice for unlikely events with huge consequences?

  2. #22
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    Awesome job Bae!! But always making us poor coast guard rescue swimmers walk home. Oh the indignity :-)!

    I also don't think of "emergency preparation" as paranoia at all. I think that we all prepare for things in life to make sure we can have a reasonably safe and sane future. That can include everything from training and education in hopes that we'll get a job someday to support ourselves, baby-proofing the house so the little ones are safe when they arrive, getting rid of slippery flooring so granny doesn't fall and break a hip, bring a life vest when you go boating, or getting the car serviced before heading out on a long trip, etc... Nothing bad may ever happen, or something bad may happen anyways even if we try and prepare for them, but I don't see emergency preparedness as any more paranoid then any other aspect of "life" preparedness. And yes there will always be people who take it all to a higher level then other would and they may be labeled "extremists" or "whacko-gun-totin'-bunker-dwelling-tin-foil-hat-wearing-preppers-who-look-for-the-Zombie-Apocolypse-round-every-corner" :-)! But I think most people who prepare for any - even all - potential emergencies are probably very mainstream folks. Probably very wise people too who may have lived thru an emergency or two and know that a little prep can go a long way to being self-sustaining (one aspect of simple living) and able to help others rather than being dependent on others.

  3. #23
    Senior Member bae's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Spartana View Post
    Awesome job Bae!! But always making us poor coast guard rescue swimmers walk home. Oh the indignity :-)!
    To be fair, they came back to pick him up, and return our paramedic, a couple of hours later, once they'd dropped off the patient, refueled, and had their coffee :-)

    He'd had quite a day too, they'd also been drilling doing open-sea retrievals in the morning, then he was on a river S&R, then they came over to help us out. He seemed pretty glad when we handed him coffee and chili at the station :-)

  4. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by bae View Post
    To be fair, they came back to pick him up, and return our paramedic, a couple of hours later, once they'd dropped off the patient, refueled, and had their coffee :-)

    He'd had quite a day too, they'd also been drilling doing open-sea retrievals in the morning, then he was on a river S&R, then they came over to help us out. He seemed pretty glad when we handed him coffee and chili at the station :-)
    Good to know. It's tough walking in flippers. But then CG rescue swimmers can walk on water :-)!

    I wasn't a "real" rescue swimmer (meaning that wasn't my full time job) but I was the "surface" rescue swimmer on my various cutters - sort of an abbreviated rescue swimmer school. Here's a video you might enjoy since I know you are in the CG aux. and you guys get a lot of the same training. Sorry, I know I promised not to talk CG stuff again - after this I promise I won't any more ....really :-)!

    http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=...F4686C5B255C77
    Last edited by Spartana; 3-23-14 at 5:53pm.

  5. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by iris lily View Post
    To my mind, Emergency Preparedness has relation to simple living in that in a simple life where we are living our values, we are focused on the now but are prepared for the future. And how many around here have "emergency cash" stashes? I don't consider that paranoid, chit happens and money is needed to deal with it.

    As for the "prepper" label, a significant number of people who spoke up about a "prepper" forum read much negativity into that term. Right or wrong, that was their perception, just like you find the entire concept of preparedness for an emergency to indicate paranoia. Most were open to the term "Emergency Preparedness" and that's what this 2nd poll shows.

    Perhaps you don't live in an area where Mother Nature threatens your area and so it's not as immediate to you.
    Here is the intro for the page on Simple Living on Wikipedia. The term is not defined in the Urban Dictionary because none of the users have bothered to define it.

    Simple living encompasses a number of different voluntary practices to simplify one's lifestyle. These may include reducing one's possessions or increasing self-sufficiency, for example. Simple living may be characterized by individuals being satisfied with what they need rather than want.[1][2] Although asceticism generally promotes living simply and refraining from luxury and indulgence, not all proponents of simple living are ascetics.[3] Simple living is distinct from those living in forced poverty, as it is a voluntary lifestyle choice.
    Adherents may choose simple living for a variety of personal reasons, such as spirituality, health, increase in quality time for family and friends, work–life balance, personal taste, frugality, or reducing personal ecological footprint and stress. Simple living can also be a reaction to materialism and conspicuous consumption. Some cite socio-political goals aligned with the anti-consumerist or anti-war movements, including conservation, degrowth, social justice, ethnic diversity, tax resistance and sustainable development.[4]

    According to this article, Simple Living is about simplifying one's life, living with less, aestheticism, spirituality, ecology and even anti-consumerism. The historical leaders in the movement included Buddha, St. Francis of Assisi, Gandhi and Thoreau.

    Of course I live in an area where Mother Nature threatens us. I am in the mid-Atlantic and I've lost half of my trees to hurricanes. If I even think about a thunderstorm, my electricity goes out.
    But when that infrequent emergency does come, I don't expect the government will fail me and I'll be on my own. And it's never failed me yet! The electricity always comes back--quickly.

    When I think of "prepper" or "emergency preparedness" or whatever one wishes to call it, I think of someone who has a fundamental distrust of the US government and its ability to do what we have charged it to do. I think of people who truly believe we will be on our own with a failed economy, failed government, failed civilization and it will only be us and our wits against doom.

    That seems like a big stressor to me. I don't want to think like that! I'm trying to get stress OUT of my life, not introduce more. Hence my interest in Simple Living.

    Don't get me wrong. If the hurricane comes (and it has) I'm the first one out there firing up my grill to make coffee for the neighborhood. I see the idea of neighbor helping neighbor in an emergency as fundamentally good.

    But I don't think I need to have a "cash stash" (or a gold reserve, for that matter) because I truly have enough faith in the US Federal Reserve (the financial arm of the US Government) to believe my debit card will always work. Apparently I'm not the only person who believes this as US debt is considered the most secure investment in the world.

    I just don't want to fill my life and my mind with thoughts and plans for Doomsday. It's too depressing. And I truly believe that's not going to happen in my life. It took Rome 200 years to fall.

    I know there are a number of people who are taking offense to some of the words I've used to illustrate my image of "emergency preparedness." I'm really sorry they're offended. I don't mean to offend. I also didn't pull these ideas out of thin air. This is my perception based on what I've seen/read/talked with others about.

    Maybe I'm being a little hyper-sensitive. I'm wrong often enough but perception is reality. On principle I am opposed to an "emergency preparedness" thread.

    Peace and joy to all.

  6. #26
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    Well emergency preparedness doesn't really have to have anything to do with the government at all. Or any kind of hording for an imminent doomsday scenario. It's can be something as simple as having copies of all your important papers stored somewhere besides your home (like a safe deposit box or at a friends house) so that if a natural disaster happens to you or in your area (like the terrible mud slide in Washington state yesterday or the many wildfires that are always happening in the west) you have access to those things if needed. For me, who a pretty hardcore minimalist, it's not about having a lot of stuff or preparing for some sort of long term situation, it's about having a few small comforts in the event of an emergency that may last a few days until the power gets restored, or the road gets dug out or the snow stops or the fire is put out.

  7. #27
    Low Tech grunt iris lily's Avatar
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    The verdict is in, we will have a forum on Emergency Preparedness. I'll set it up this weekend. This poll is now closed.

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