Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Wrong catastrophe assumptions

In one of my normal reads I came across some interesting thoughts from someone who is involved in (for lack of a better phrase) the emergency management industry.  Note that I paraphrased his two key points.

Wrong Catastrophic Disaster Assumptions
Eric Holdeman, Emergency Management Blog, 18 September 2012

  • [The assumption that elected or appointed officials will take the appropriate course of action]. 
  • [The assumption that all emergency workers will be available to allocate to various missions. The workers themselves will often be caught up in the disaster].


He makes some other points, but to my mind they are not particularly on topic.

What I find slightly amusing is that both of his points are almost the normal assumption in most apocalypse-in-progress type stories.  Maybe he should read  a little fiction and get some ideas.

4 comments:

kymber said...

wow. this guy sounds very learned (pronounce luuur-ned). bahahahhaahah! maybe you should send him a polite email and recommend some books to help him become more learned (pronounced luuur-ned) about the topic. i am sure that he would be grateful (pronounced grate-ful).

your friend,
kymber

PioneerPreppy said...

I'm from the government and I am here to help. LOL

Stephen said...

That kymber is a hoot, isn't she...

Have a great Thanksgiving, my friend.

russell1200 said...

kymber: Since he is working within an industry, he has to at least be cautious about the failings of his industry. In his case he seems to be drinking the Koolaid as well.

Pioneer: Over reliance on the government is a bid mistake for sure. On the other hand, the idea that the government should not be interested in helping out in a disaster, and we will do it all with private resources I think is a little niave.

Stephen: I always thought she was completely serious? I have always found people who have pink bunny suits as part of their everyday wardrobe to be nothing but completely serious! LOL