running dogg wrote:

I've heard that five million people are imperiled. And that's probably a
low number. And these are people whose immune systems probably weren't
in top shape to begin with. This has the potential to be the worst
natural disaster in terms of deaths in human history, exempting plagues.
Before the signal was wiped out by local QRM, I heard the BBC say last
night (yesterday morning world time) that only a trickle of aid has
gotten to only a small portion of survivors. Most of the survivors are
on their own. Some haven't eaten since the tsunami hit, which weakens
their immune systems even more than they already were. I expect water
borne sicknesses to quickly kill many thousands, perhaps even a million,
even two million.


There may be a lesson to be learned here. It *could* happen here
(wherever here is to any reader of this NG) and we should do what we can
while we can to "be prepared" as the Boy Scouts would say.

I realize it wouldn't do much good to have had a year's supply of stored
food and water, along with medical supplies, etc., etc., etc., if they
were near the water's edge when a Tsunami / Tidal Wave hit. However,
not all of us live on the brink of a 7000 mile pond or at sea level.
Even then and there some buried supplies might have survived. Think
about it!

There WILL be an emergency of some kind in the lives of most of us; but
someone has said, "There is no emergency to him who is prepared!" We
can lessen the number of "emergencies" that come our way be preparing
for as many eventualities as possible.

Al