What unexpected disaster might befall a small village in rural England?
I have to develop a disaster recovery plan for my village. This is so that we are prepared in the event of something untoward happening. What should I make sure we are prepared for?
Things very often don't make sense. And, my mistake, I forgot about the crop circles. But perhaps they were whirlwind vortexes, not space aliens.
This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at February 26, 2017 3:45 PM MST
We already have that. I did inquire from the Cat's Protection League about the possibility of rendering all cats into fertiliser. They immediately banned me from their facebook page.
Sink hole. What kind of rescue could you mount if the ground opened up beneath your village and everybody fell into Hell?
And what if in rescuing the villagers, some of the other denizens of Hell escape with them? You'll need to have a grasp of the immigration laws as they relate to an influx of illegal aliens. I mean there may be murderers, or rapists, or thieves, or politicians. Some of them might even be *gasp* French.
This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at February 26, 2017 3:35 PM MST
It's possible that depending where you live, preparation may be in vain. As many of us would fall into that category of what is called, target practice.
Back in the days of the American base at Chicksands (google if necessary) we had a lot of Americans locally. They were good neighbours and most of us (including me) were sad to see them leave at the end of the cold war. Many came back to live here after that, so they must have liked this bit of the UK. I wonder whether we will again be host to Americans as the new cold war ramps up.
Hmmm. :) One might imagine that if the disaster is unexpected one cannot possibly have planned for it, whilst the disaster that is planned for must be expected however tiny the risk of its occurrence. Therefore how might one plan for that which cannot be expected?
Being serious for a moment, one of the things that we are good at in the UK is pulling together and helping each other when disaster strikes, thanks to a community spirit, relatively short and easy communications, and a blessedly large number and variety of emergency, rescue and welfare organisations both professional and voluntary. (Of the volunteers, mountain- and cave- rescue teams from Scotland and the North of England helped the professional services in the grim task of finding and recovering bodies and aircraft parts after the Lockerbie atrocity. The RNLI covers not only maritime rescues; it also has specialists in river-flood rescues.)
We are also unfortunately too good at blaming people for the event in the first place, even trying to find individuals as scape-goats; calling for Head-Rolling and Full Public Inquiring To Ensure Learning Lessons and the event never happening again. Only, it will. It is impossible to predict human behaviour in all difficult situations, and not at all easy to predict natural events with high certainty. At least it is possible to assess natural hazards and estimate to some extent, their risks and outcomes. I am of course assuming those who attempt it, do know the differences between the italicised terms; something I fear many politicians, journalists and lay people do not. I worry if this ignorance and the vengeful streak hamper attempts to establish facts after an event, to help the recovery beyond the initial emergency response, and to make any plans to meet repeat events, in a sensible manner.