I think the slogan they use is "safe happens".
The first time I saw this thing, it took my breath away. For reasons I'm not prepared to go into here, I firmly believe that bad things can happen to anyone... at any time. I am also a true believer, these days anyway, in as much emergency preparedness as you can reasonably afford.
We heat with wood here and have smoke detectors, including one that's hardwired in addition to battery backup, just outside the bedrooms. We have separate CO detectors as well. There are two fire extinguishers in the living room. My wife carries bear spray when she walks in the woods and we have an epi-pen for possible anaphylactic shock from bee or wasp stings.
We have a 4WD SUV that will almost surely take a bigger 'survivable' hit than the little eco-friendly smart-cars and as a bonus, can push through anything winter throws at us and almost drive up vertical surfaces. Oh yeah, hit a deer with your little eco-clown car and all that'll be left is a largish twisted can of 'stew of you'. I always have extra gas with me.
Lately, I've been looking around for an emergency generator, despite the fact that, with one glaring exception, the power has been more reliable out here than in Toronto. When our power goes, we lose the pump in our well, which means no drinking water... and unless you take a bucket down to the pond which is frozen all winter, no flushing the toilet.
I always marvel at the folks they interview every year, who apparently can't connect the dots and are puzzled at being wiped out repeatedly, like clockwork, by Hurricane Zelda. When the bird flu... or whatever other bug hits the big cities, and make no mistake, the experts all agree it's just a question of when, I'm prepared to yank my son out of school and wait for it to burn itself out, a la SARS.
But this is Canada you say... we're fine.
Ask people in British Columbia about that.
More than two million residents in the greater Vancouver area and about 100,000 in Nanaimo are under a boil-water advisory after a powerful storm stirred up water supplies.Unlike the slogan in the commercial, safe doesn't just happen.
Currently, B.C. Hydro crews are working from Vancouver Island to Chilliwack in an effort to restore electricity to almost 60,000 homes still without power.
At its peak, the storm left more than 210,000 British Columbians in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island region without power.
It's worth thinking about.
Technorati Tags: shit happens, sheeple, emergency preparedness
