Text 702, 112 rader
Skriven 2007-08-20 08:54:04 av Thom LaCosta (1:261/1352.0)
     Kommentar till en text av Richard Webb (1:116/901.0)
Ärende: emergency comms, was welcome to grammar school, was ...
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Richard Webb wrote in a message to Thom LaCosta:


TL> Don't get insulted...but what happened in New Orleans shouldn't be
TL> viewed as a model or example for much.  If the local folks had have
TL> prepared and acted accordingly, a lot of the problems would be
TL> different in nature. 

 RW> Agreed, however I still think since this was a large scale disaster
 RW> a lot of what was needed still would have been arranged for on hf.

Sure...and the bulk of that only becase of the incompetence you the local
government.


 RW> IF you said sitting in a parking lot getting filled with water
 RW> you'd be right on the money.

Oh like the other busses that could have used to evacuate people?

 RW> had any gas money" to GOd only knows what. IF it hadn't been so
 RW> stupid and sad after all the homeland security money spent to play
 RW> terror alert I'd be laughing behind my sleeve.

I can't offer my personal thoughts on that....I would be taken to task for
saying unkind things.


 RW> YOu betcha!  YEt I carried one of their whiz bang 800 mhz trunked
 RW> portables with me for two days while deployed there. THe system
 RW> (the statewide trunked system) found itself overloaded with
 RW> traffic.  

I wasn't there....but I'll bet ya a cup of coffee that a lot of non local stuff
might have been lessened in there was a local comm system in place.


 RW> I'm a strong believer in the premise that my government will screw
 RW> anything up given half a chance, and citizens just have to fend for
 RW> themselves when the stuff hits the fan 


Years ago we went through a farily severe hurricane....and the efforts of my
boss and I helped get National Flood Insurcance started.  Cleaverly, we had
built into the program an esclation cluase of sorts....the first time everyone
was covered...but in addition to the aid, it triggered a series of studies to
accurate define what were potential flood areas....Residents were encouraged
NOT to move back into the flood plane....and the disencentive was dimiished
coverage for a subsequentr claim....and even giving the commercial carriers the
option NOT to renew a policy on something in the flood plane.

So what happened was that folks knew exactly where they were situated...they
could use the money to rebuild out of the danger area...or play crap shoot with
Mother Nature and the Insurance Industry.

Of course that logic would be a little hard to apply to a city that is below
sea level.


 RW> WHen it does, my radio
 RW> equipment is ready to serve my neighbors and my community, because
 RW> if they're waiting for their government they might be waiting too
 RW> long.

From what I read about things down where you are....you might need a LOT of
radios to backstop the 'gubmint'.

 RW> that I can't depend on the folks who tell me "just leave everything
 RW> to us and you'll be just fine." 

I guess we ain;t as laid back here as you folks seem to be. We have had a 75
per cent increase in electric rates due to abject stupidty of our legislature,
our new fair-haired governor who aspires to national office is taling about not
only a 20 per cent increase in the sales tax, but also expanded it to cover
things like labor, professional services(except of course legal fees...and a
300 per cent increase in assessed value.

Each day more and more residents pull up stakes and move to Delaware, or PA or
further south...and each day more and more businesses simply leave the state
before they are forced out of business.

And I believe that if one tracked membership and activity in volunteer groups
that "help" the government, you would see a downward trend.

Oh...during the huricane I mentioned....one of my jobs was to monitor water
level at a damn north of us....and I had a big chart that I could use to see
how much of downtown Baltimore would be underwater when and if the damn either
broke, or when we got the Corp of Engineers to blow away part of a hill to
relieve the pressure on the damn.  It was like having your finger on an arming
button for a bomb.  When I moved into the area near the harbor years later...I
had my map...and I can tell you even if the dman goes and the water comes down
the bay...I will NOT have to be rescued by our local chumps.



 RW> I'm not about grant money or any other happy shinola, I"m about
 RW> trained people getting the job done when it needs to get done. 
 RW> IT's nice if my government fulfills their responsibilities and has
 RW> the backups in place.  THen I'm more than glad to send messages to
 RW> uncle Fred or Aunt SUe telling them that JOe Shmo is safe at a
 RW> shelter or other alternate
 RW> location.  WOuld that those health and welfare radiograms were all
 RW> I had to deal with.

You just need new government.


73,
thom - k3hrn
http://www.zerobeat.net/ 
--- GEcho 1.20/Pro
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