John Que Public

Louisiana just came out of a large storm named Ida. This storm was more significant than hurricane Katrina some 16 years ago. Gas lines are hours and hours long. Fears of low fuel are being expressed by people who couldn’t even fill up their cars before the storm. We’re all just hoping for what’s left of our lives to go back to normal.

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However, this time things are significantly different. This time there have been no power outages, unlike Katrina, which left New Orleans without power for weeks on end after damaging 80% of the power grid in one fell swoop. This time, the New Orleans levee system has held up much better than it used to. This time, there aren’t just thousands of people displaced by flooding; there are hundreds of thousands.

As I watched the damage caused by this hurricane, I kept asking myself, “ What preparation do you even have.”

After Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, the Corps was brought in fairly quickly to help restore order after the levees were damaged and chaos ensued. Yet, it doesn’t look like anyone did any type of planning. Short memories are one thing, but what I see is a lack of Importance of being prepared.

The average gas generator is between $400 and $2,500. At the higher price, if you divide $2,500 by 192 months ( 16 years), that’s about $13 a month or $3.25 a week or 46 cents a day. The point I’m trying to make is why were so many people so unprepared. Plus, this is not the first storm people along the coast have been in a storm. It’s clear There’s was no sense of urgency. The government’s only thing was to send out an app that allows you to enter your cellphone number and find out where the closest shelter is in case of an emergency.

These are the things people should prepare for in advance of any emergency;

1. Know the best routes to evacuate. An emergency is likely to happen during off-peak hours when traffic will be lightest and most “escape” streets will be less congested. Make sure you know the best routes to take if a disaster struck your area. Avoid taking a major highway, as these are usually the first roads to become congested in a disaster
2. Know where to go if you have to leave. Know where you will find family, friends, and emergency supplies.
3. Know how to start a fire in the event of a disaster. Knowing how to create a fire is a considerable part of emergencies, as heat is vital for staying cool and keeping warm during a disaster, especially if the electricity goes down.
4. Know how to make your own emergency food and water. Many areas will need to cooperate for people to survive if they’re in a large area and fuel and water in the area is in short supply. Emergency organizations may ask people to store up reserves of food and water so they can share them with others that may need them.
5. Know how to stay safe in an emergency. A large-scale emergency could have people in need of help fighting for their own safety, yet most people do not have the knowledge they need to keep themselves safe.
6. Know what to do if you or a family member is seriously injured. Get some kind of first aid training. The first thing you should do after an accident is taking out your first aid kit and find the first aid guide that comes with it. It would help if you then learned how to treat six common emergencies, including choking, bleeding, burns, shock, and dehydration.
7. Have a go or bug-out bag with food, water, knife, flashlights, candles, first aid kits, dry clothes, pepper spray, etc.