Before I read the article, as you suggested--I thought, and still think, that our ports in the Pacific NW are in the most danger...
All it would take is a tsunami of the size that happened in the Pacific in December 2004, and/or a terrorist attack of any consequence, to totally paralyze the area...not only Seattle, but all points that distribute goods from here...including fuel, water, food, medicines, etc.
As far as a pandemic flu, if we get one here, the entire world will get it...This is a gateway city, of some consequence.
One of the things I think we all should be asking of our local and State Governments, wherever we are is:
WHAT exactly is the job of the First Responders, how long will it take, and then
WHAT exactly is the responsibility of each and every citizen to prepare in advance for any emergency?
This is a great idea:
"Our Web site would be a good place to go. That's metrokc.gov/prepare."
BUT
How many citizens of every town and city in the US have Internet? How many take the newspapers? How many access radio, and how many TV???
It would appear that not only the cities in LA in particular, were not prepared for much of any disaster...the 1st Responders were not prepared....the boats the police had were nearly nonexistent....the school buses were not accessed, and therefore flooded....etc etc etc.
The people did NOT know what to do, WHERE to go, HOW to get hold of their family, WHERE to get food and water...etc etc...
I do think local government let them down. The local governments did NOT make anything clear to these people, and both the National and Local and State governments should have been hammering these instructions in for several years, at least 4 times a year, IMO.
In the 1950's and early 1960's, the American's at least knew what Civil Defense was, and it was practiced in schools at all levels. Food was stored, as was water. But today, NONE of that is practiced or even discussed in schools, nor in the newspapers, or media.....
In sales, we know that people don't even understand what you are talking about, unless the new product or service name is repeated at least a minimum of SIX times. Generally it takes longer to get the word out to people, but that is a minimum.
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