Martin,

What is the deadline on submissions? I can add a lot to it.

-Blast, just back from Denver.

edit: Oh, there it is. Sept. 30th.

Hey, I didn't eat them all...I gave DW's cat one. Heck, considering my past history with him I think that makes me a saint!

-Blast

St. Merriwether of Spring Creek
Feast Day: July 4

Little about St. Merriwether is known for certain, as his name is thought to be a pseudonym. He attained the crown of martyrdom when an angry crowd applied a wet cat to each of his fingers and left them there. It is said he endured this brutal torture with great patience and serenity, even as his tormentors re-wet each cat as it began to dry out, thus renewing the pain with increasing intensity.

Also noteworthy is that St. Misseswether was acquitted and later canonized immediately after her own death, the fact that she put up with him for so long being considered a miracle.

He is the patron saint of animal bites

"I don't understand the overall hostility to the original post."

The article is for people who live in hurricane areas. It involves dealing with open flames, combustibles and carbon monoxide.

If the people who live in hurricane areas don't already have a few working brain cells, some common sense and a way to cook or heat water (if they have water) by now, this magazine article probably isn't going to accomplish much.

People who don't have much experience dealing with fire or thinking for themselves are the ones we tend to read about in the newspaper and Google News: burned people, burned houses, explosions, carelessness with flames and extreme heat, carbon monoxide poisoning, etc, etc, etc.

The people who think that being able to make coffee and heat a can of beans is a good idea will probably research it and learn what to do and not do, so they will be semi-competent when the need arises.

The others will whine and cry and wait for FEMA to deliver hot meals with fries and lattes. If, in desperation, they do remember this article mentioned BBQs and campfires, it may well exacerbate their problems.

Children shouldn't play with fire until they know how to do it safely.

Cynical Sue

Children shouldn't play with fire until they know how to do it safely.

Cynical Sue

LOL

I'm struck by the amount of hostility being projected towards those who aren't as "prepared" as some of the people on this forum seem to think that they are.

Can't help but wonder if the hostility, misquotes, quotes out of context, etc., isn't simply a reflection back onto the people who think that things like hurricanes are nature's way of cleaning the gene pool, that folks who go to places like Starbucks aren't as smart as those who frequent the local army surplus store, etc.

Does the inability of some people to pre-plan affect your own plans? If so, how and why is that?

Why such anger towards people who according to some I've read here, will be dead soon anyway due to their own stupidity?

I'm reminded of a scene in a great movie, "Cool Hand Luke" in which one of the characters, played by Ralph Waite, is scammed by some of the other prisoners and then punished by the guards, Luke, brilliantly portrayed by Paul Newman, wonders why those being imprisoned must treat one of their own with the same hostility as the guards do, claiming that they, the guards didn't need any help to be vicious towards other human beings. Are we really so callous towards others that when asked to give some practical advice we prefer to ridicule and scoff at the plight of our fellow human beings? Does the hurricane need our help?

John E

"No man is an island, entire of itself
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main...
any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls
it tolls for thee."

John Dunne

Starbucks Review

But seriously, I only mentioned Starbucks simply because when there are serious emergencies such as an earthquake, hurricane, global economic recession etc the Starbucks of this world will in most likelyhood not be there to give comfort and cosy re-assurance, well at least for many days or even weeks and possibly years. The convenient lifestyles that many of us lead in the developed west (1st world countries) is just the froth of the top of the cappuccino of life. Once the froth on top is gone that just leaves the coffee. You can either have your coffee hot or cold. All it means is that getting a gas camping stove for when the coffee gets cold will brighten up the day for many if only for a short period of time.

The learning curve will be a steep one. Complacency just means being further down at the bottom of the learning curve. I sincerely hope I'm wrong.

The joke about cleaning the gene pool up was mine and while it was a joke. It does have a serous point. All throughout humanity people that did stupid things like stay in a home that is below sea level right next to the sea when a hurricane is coming would have died. Others would see this and figure out it’s a very bad and risky place to live & work.


But in today’s world we have big daddy (the US government) coming to the rescue and actually pay these people money for their losses and also pay to rebuild in the exact same spot. Like a spoiled rotten kid these people have not learned it’s a bad spot to live they actually look for and demand the government to pay them and to their way of thinking this makes it a good place to live.



These people don’t have to pay for their homes to be rebuilt, they don’t have to think about putting food away, they don’t have to have gas in the tank to evacuate; they don’t have to know how to cook without electricity. The government rushes in to do all this for them.


I’m sorry, but I don’t feel too sorry for people that do this.

If it was not actually happening it would be laughable. Instead it’s a sad and pathetic thing.


There is a learning curve when big daddy rushes into take care of people every time something bad happens. but it’s curved in the wrong direction.

"I'm struck by the amount of hostility being projected towards those who aren't as "prepared" as some of the people on this forum seem to think that they are."

Really?

From Newsweek [http://www.newsweek.com/id/159669?GT1=43002]
"On hard-hit Galveston Island, some 20,000 people out of a total population of 57,000 ignored or were unable to comply with evacuation orders. Across Texas and Louisiana as a whole, about 100,000 stayed behind in coastal areas, compared to more than 2 million who sought shelter inland. For those who remained, the aftermath has been dismal—block after block of destroyed houses; no power, water or food supplies; and rank refuse piled up everywhere."

PREPARED??? Are you kidding? These people aren't even capable of rational thinking! Maybe they should erect a huge sign in what is left of Galveston that says "Complacency Kills".

Okay, let's say that 25% of those who didn't leave were either quadraplegics whose caregivers bolted in panic, or were just too poor to leave. That leaves FIFTEEN THOUSAND people on Galveston Island ALONE who figured if it got too bad, all they had to do was scream for help on their cell phones.

1. Most of these people had been through hurricanes before, and knew their power.
2. Most of these people figured that if they had survived all previous hurricanes, they would certainly survive this one.
3. Most of these people could have left, but chose not to.
4. Most of these people apparently figured that the laws of physics don't apply to them
5. If any of them had useful supplies, most of them figured they would still be sitting in the house, high and dry. How high is 'high' in Galveston? Ten feet of fill?
6. Most of these people apparently couldn't figure out what the phrase 'GET OUT!' means.
7. Did any of these people have a semi-rational plan?
8. How many bodies were washed out to sea and will never be found?

These are the same kind of people who read about babies drowned in bathtubs, then do the same. They have friends who drove drunk and died, and they still do the same. They've been told since childhood not to mix electricity and water, and they get fried. The crime rate is horrendous, and some people still don't lock their doors. Child molesters are everywhere, but lots of people don't know where their young children are much of the day.

So, tell me, John, is there some reason that I'm missing as to WHY I should NOT think these people are incredibly stupid? People with sense don't make the news much, do they?

Obviously you are free to think anything you wish about anyone you wish. I only wonder at the hostility displayed and wonder if, as I wrote earlier, does the hurricane need help? Do we really think that simply thinking of other people as stupid without knowing the hows or the whys of what they did or didn't do is a good thing?

There's a rule in football about not piling on, it's purpose is to keep a violent game from becoming a sadistic game. Seems like a good idea in general to me.

I've seen more than my share of devastation in my earlier career as a photojournalist, both natural disasters and war show little mercy towards those who either by fate or by being "stupid" end up on the front lines. I suppose that I like to think that we as people, can be better than that. Maybe we can't.

Perhaps those 15,000 souls you mentioned, like many people here, simply didn't believe the news reports or the newspapers when they were warned to go. Maybe all of them had a friend of a friend who got misquoted once and that convinced them that the media lies to the people all the time. How were they to know that this time it was true? Maybe they sat back and thought the news media were simply being stupid, trying to scare them into leaving their homes. Who knows?

Is the purpose of the ETS forums to learn and to share or is it to crow about our achievements in obtaining some mythical sense of well being cause we think we're "prepared"?

Does being empathetic demean me in some way that I'm unaware? Am I a lesser person for not calling those less fortunate names?

I guess I just don't get it.

John E

"
"the snow doesn't give a soft white damn whom it touches"

E.E. Cummings