I'm sure many have heard the news by now that there were more London bonbings. I work for a large global company who lost a couple employees to the last one so we had an evacuation drill a bit ago. Our Evacuation plans all say to meet in the parking lots so everyone did that then a few went under the garages (two level detached from the buildings) to escape the head. Well the security gaurds drove around and yelled at everyone to get out of the garages and stand on top of them in case the cars were to have a bomb in them. So of course one guy asks what good that would do since we would be standing right next to the cars on top of the garages which could have a bomb in them, or if a car explodes in the garage we would get hurt falling on top of it. Security gaurds didn't like that very much, but it goes to show how the people in charge haven't always thought of everything and don't always communicate what they want very well which is why you should make plans for yourself.
If it were a real emergency (i.e. I smelled smoke, heard a blast or thought my life were endangered in any way) I would have thrown a chair through the window and rapelled down the 4 floors via cat 5 cable <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Have a PSK with you at work?

With the way the terrorist have been operating as of late I don’t think I would like to stand in a big group waiting for the management to decide what to do! That seems like an awful convenient secondary target to me. More than once the terrorist have sent in a second attack to hit after the rescue personnel are on scene working or to hit the crowd of on lookers.

Cat 5 has 8 conductors. Does that make it better than 7-strand 550?

NYC is responding like this:

"New York Police to Search Bags
New York City will begin tomorrow morning randomly checking bags at subway stations, commuter railways and on buses, officials announced today"

From NY Times

I agree, but that wouldn't occur to your basic corporate type manager, they want everybody together in one big group, they can't get that "team concept idea" out of their minds -- so we will be a big, tempting terrorist target, inside or outside.

Just when I thought I had come up with every possible use for CAT5E

I assume the cat5 comment was a joke. Cat5 isn't very strong. I certainly wouldn't suggest this. If you consider you need to escape in that maner, I suggest you get a real escape kit.

-john

One should not stand near,planters,mailboxes,dumpsters etc.For a secondary device to kill, mame the arriving rescuers or the folks who evacuated the building is sop for terrorists.

I would stay clear all parked vehicals as well.

couple of points
1. Experts agree that going to a specific area that cannot be guarded from snipers/preset bombs is not good.
2. Company should not have evacuation plan broadcast i.e. on web, well out in open, etc. to help plan bombings.
3. Find out as much as you can about specific plans.

RE: NYC Searches -- news story says 'passengers selected for searches will be approached by officers, who will ask them what they are carrying, and request them to open their bags. If an officer looking for explosives finds some other form of contraband, police said that person would be subject to arrest.'

that is not good for those of us with psk's and edc knives.

glad I don't live in NYC, but coming soon to a town near you......

You wouldn't use a single cable... you'd have to braid several cables together. That's what the 'e' in Cat-5e stands for you know... "Escape" rated.


<img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

and what about the shielding ? <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

You have to twist it all together and tie it to building ground in order to avoid EMP.

-john

I keep food and drinks in my desk, my EDC and my BOB is in my truck. I also don't park in or on one of the garages, I park in a side lot and always try to park in an end space so there are only cars on one side of me.

More is better right

I made the assumption that the manager would take a headcount. As slow as people were to walk down the stairs and some self appointed safety person half way down telling us to get in single file made it even slower. I'm going a different way and heading straight to my truck (I know I didn't pack a bomb so that makes my truck safer to me than the rest of the cars even if there is a chance someon would have planted a bomb under it.)

I made a noose once and hung the sutffed purple dinosaur, I got several commnets about doing too well of a job on the noose, but was later asked to take it down for fear that it would offend someone. My comment was the only person it may offend would be someone that has never seen/heard said puple dino.

Yes it was a joke, though we are on the 4th floor and there is a nice hill halfway up the first so I would really only drop the length of 3 floors, I could probably survive just jumping but the cat 5 may slow me down <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

They send us a link to the plan afterward but I found it doesn't give much more than follow the fire route posted in the breakrooms and says to get 300ft away from the building, doesn;t say to stand on top of the garage like the gaurd told us or anything about managers taking head count to make sure everyone is ok. It did say anyone handicapped will have two pre-approved buddies that will stay with them and help them down the stairs after anyone else. Now I understand the handicapped person would slow down the rest of the sheep but seems to me that they could easily sue for being designated as last to get out.

I always park out of the way usually far from where everyone else is fighting to get the close spots. Like you I like to be on an end somewhere so as to have a little space around me. A nice ditch close by makes very nice cover as well. I have been known to park several hundred yards away behind a church to be able to have a shaded place to park and be able to leave directly instead of being routed through security, gates or slow traffic.

More meaningless stuff to make the sheep feel safer!!

that's probably a good idea, but I'm like everybody else, lazy and not wanting to walk too far, trying to get the closest space -- guess that's not so smart, considering a terrorist would want to park close to a building to detonate a bomb

I don't have any other lots nearby that I could park in and have security gates, however there are no fences around the rest of the area, just some small hills and trees, nothing I couldn't get through if I wanted to.

The problem is, though, it's not just meaningless nonsense, it's a backdoor attack on our rights as Americans.

Troy

I'm pretty sure he was joking, as was I. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

When I was working on my long stale criminal investigation degree, my area of focus was radicalism and terrorism. And I shook my head every time I read things like "don't rally, might be a target".

To quote Sherman Potter, "Bushwah!" That makes sense if you are facing someone with a mortar or grenade launcher. With small arms, easy enough just to pot the suits as they run. Let the guys without ties go- power to the people, man! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

IMHO, I'm more worried about a solid head count than I am about guys with rifles. If it is a blast, my concern is making sure everyone is out, and if not, finding out where they were last time they were seen, so when the fire crew shows up, I can give them a decently accurate report. If it is a bomb threat, I want to know were some of my people with bad hearts are real fast, and "Run and hide, there might be a sniper" doesn't help.

I am concented about secondaries, though. Pick a good rally point. Away from cars- to easy to put something small and magnetic, about the size of an altoids tin, under the fill hole.

But it's for our own good, don't you know. Which one of our (spinning in his grave) founding fathers said (paraphrase, I can't remember the exact quote) "those who give up freedom for safety deserve neither." Was that Jefferson?

"People willing to give up freedom for a little safety, deserve neither freedom nor safety."
--Ben Franklin

Ah - thanks for the correction!

Hmmm, methinks mayhap shades of "Diehard"?

I see a scenario in the making.