"There is a very strong correlation between premature death and a persons income."

More than you know. If crowded shopping malls are terrorist targets, only the people who can afford to shop at the malls (or work there) are likely to be victims. I'm pretty safe.

Only people who can afford to fly are likely to be involved in terrorist takeover of planes. I'm pretty safe.

I can't remember the last time I was in a high-rise, although the floor of my mobile home is about three feet (1m) off the ground. Since I live in a town that has one whole signal light, you may correctly assume that there aren't many high-rises around here. I'm pretty safe.

I just hope I'm not on the Alaskan Way Viaduct in ANY kind of an earthquake. It's predicted to be the first thing to go down.

I live in the county that is said to be the meth lab center of WA. Sooooo, there is a reasonably good possibility of a zombie attack.

It's always something.

Sue

Excellent points - While slipping in the tub or a car crash isn't as 'sexy' as a tsunami, both are many factors more likely. Plan for the likely and the realistic:

- fire extinguisher, smoke ( and co2) alarms, evacuation plan
_ take care of your health
_Use common sense

Just a few pointers to start


( ans those 100 year floods? They seem to be hitting about every 20 years...)

ROFL!!!! I was just thinking the same thing myself- it isn't much fun to scrub the tub. It is fun to prep for a flood. Even more for zombies.

The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.


Zombie prep takes expensive and cool toys…

I think on an individual level survivial is a binary equation. You get in your car and you make it to your destination or you don't. Your plane crashes or it doesn't. You don't live 98% of the time and die 2% of the time. You either live or die. Group statistics do not mean much on an individual basis.

Thats why I don't worry about my truck being EMP proof or things like that, I see the chances of that being very slim. I looked for the safest vehicle to commute in and had to weigh the safety standards, for example unibody cars test safer in a single car accident such as falling asleep or being drunk and running off the road but frame vehicles are safer in multi car accidents where you get hit by or hit another car. Since I don't drive while sleepy, drunk, etc my chances of being in the single car accident are slimmer then the chances of being hit by someone else.

I used to have a conversation similar to this with my DW every time I took off on a climbing, canyoneering or solo backpacking trip. I always told her that she was more likely to get in trouble on the local speedw.... er, freeway than I was in the backcountry of AZ, UT, etc.

Every time a hiker gets in trouble it makes the national news & yet auto accidents kill folks in droves.

This seemed fuzzy to me. Thankfully, I work in a research institute, and there is a world-class mathematician sitting one office away who was willing to take a look at it.

So, if you live in this flood plain for fifty years, what you actually have are fifty chances of a 1% event. That's not the same as a 50% chance.

Imagine you are flipping a coin, and it comes up heads 99 times in a row. What's the probability it will come up heads again? It seems low, but it's actually still 50%, because the final flip (experiment) is completely unaffected by the prior 99.

To figure out the actual probability of a flood over a fifty year period, you'd have to know whether or not there was any correlation between the chance of a flood and the length of time between floods. I don't think there is, but unfortunately we don't have meteorologists here. If there is no correlation, nothing that increases the risk if, say, there hasn't been a flood in a decade, then your risk remains 1%, no matter how many years you live there.

Well said. This is why the mortality rate hasn't changed in the past ten thousand years: one per person.

Given this, it is important that every one believe in something: I believe I will have a beer.

I think (I could always be wrong ) that most folks have guns around for protection against violent crime more than zombies. It's the robber in the parking lot or home invasion that more folks worry about.

IMHO every able bodied male should own one in order to come to the defense of those less able to take care of themselves. They (guns) are just one of the tools that I think every man should own.

Although, in case of zombies, a gun would be especially nice to have around.