I am just way oversaturated in media coverage of the Katrina event. On one hand, its vitally important that I get as much information as possible, from as many sources as possible, so I can learn and see what works, what doesnt work, what should have been done differently and what shouldnt have been done at all. You don’t often get this kind of mass destruction and population displacement in a first-world country without a war of some kind. This is an outstanding ‘field laboratory’ to see what works and what doesn’t.
On the other hand, its mucking with my head with some of these infuriating tales of looting, agency turf battles and way-too-needy victims.
I read about a couple kids who stood in line with their mom for a couple hours to get a hot meal from the Salvation Army. A gal there sees these kids and decides to give them a treat and gives each one a jumbo box of Pop Tarts…..and then the kids examine the box, see its a flavor they dont like, and hand them back.
Theres an expression ‘There are no victims, only volunteers’.
Sure theyre tired, sure theyre hungry, sure theyre scared…..but people have always been hungry, scared and tired and while many of them make poor decisions because of it, even more don’t…Im almost starting to think that the survivors/victims biggest enemy is themselves.
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I am having the most fascinating email conversation with a fella. He’s telling me all about his emergency power system that he put together to run his gear during a blackout. Its an extremely informative read and if it’s okay with him I may post some parts of it that I think the rest of you might find interesting. My needs are pretty simple: lighting, coomunications, battery charging… all things that are normally DC anyway, so right off the bat I can streamline things by leaving out the inverter for AC. (Although I might have one anyway just to play it safe.) Between fluorescent/LED lighting, small wattage radio and D- and AA-battery charger, I should be able to run for a failry good bit of time off a large enough bank of batteries. My own reading on the subject, and these emails, are convincing me that the AGM (absorbed glass media) batts will fit my needs since I want something that minimizes hydrogen gas during recharge…I want to keep these indoors in my basement area and I’d very much like to not have to worry about venting issues.
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“What would McGyver do” is rapidly becoming my problem-solving paradigm when I think of how Id cope with conditions in New Orleans. Of course, that means I really need to shell out the shekels and get a Leatherman Wave.
Yes, please post the meail exchange if you get permission to. I’d find it fascinating as well.
One thing I’ve learned from this is that I’ll never give a dime to the Red Cross again.
And as far as batteries go, all the good Telecom deep-discharge batteries are sealed and are designed to be paralleled. Minimizing the use of inverters is a good idea for long-term situations. For short term situations, it probably doesn’t matter too much, since you’d probably have excess battery capacity anyway.
I’ll never give a dime to the Red Cross again.
Agreed. I got there after they blew my 9/11 money on coke and hookers.
Americares seems pretty good. They’re run like a tight ship, focus entirely on actual relief work (as opposed to, say, meddling in things like supporting UN gun bans) and seem to basically just do what they say they’re going to do. As far as I can tell, anyhow.
arnt Americares the guys that did alot of work for the cia back in the 80s an 90s?
That’s a new one on me, but google does turn up a few hits in that direction. Some of it is pretty tinfoil looking (left-flavored.) This:
http://ww.dailykos.com/story/2004/12/30/124644/40
has a bunch of links but it’s all pretty jumbled and circumstantial. The short of it is, I don’t know, but I imagine you can find that kind of stuff on just about anybody that handles that much high profile money on behalf of contentious, strife-torn regions around the world. Maybe it’s crap, or maybe they got played, or maybe they’re part of the shadow government.
I found them by looking for someone who didn’t dabble in the usual non-relief spectrum of political crap, but I didn’t think to check for the black helos. I guess we’re back to square one again.
yeah i never really found anything concrete. back when the tsunami happened i spent a few days trying to find somebody to give money to (not political not religious not crooked) but i never did find them. their may be some but they aren’t big enough or they don’t have the infrastructure to really be effective. its like a double edge sword
Thats Air America you dweeb……
of course there was Air America but i think Americares did also.
wonder
why the coverage don’t include those whom are doing fine on their own merit and resources? maybe they lack the sensation value of portraying surviors as helpless or rioting madmen. how much will be spent before the next major disaster hits, to find emergency resources tapped out?
Though I loved MacGyver and still idolize him to some point, he really was based on falsehood and poor science at best. I’d learn some good basic science skills instead if I were you and intent on survival and I’d invest in good non-power handtools.
they are
the carefull breeding of re-educated idiots whom can’t fend for themselves anymore. real independent survivial has been reduced to a game show. true self reliant people are pointed out as wierdoes. this is the America the Government nutured for complete control under the new fatherland “homeland security”. the founding fathers of yesterday now puke in their graves.
any ideas how to wake up the zombies?