Thursday, June 01, 2006

New Comment policy: Anyone's welcome!

I've decided to throw open the Comments section to anyone from now on. You no longer have to register with Blogger to post a comment, although you might want to register anyway, just so you can start your own blog. I know that some people were uncomfortable with the whole registration routine, so now you can comment to your heart's content.

Mi blog es su blog.

Disaster Preparedness meeting : The Summary

There was a fair turnout for tonight's meeting, probably around 150 people. The main points: you need lots of practical food, lots of water, lots of supplies. Flashlights, batteries, fie extinguishers, radios, blankets, pet food, kitty litter, plastic bags for the kitty litter (hint: it's not just for kitties anymore...). Aside from the Mr. Rogers-like approach ("Who can tell me how many policemen are in Los Angeles?") the main message delivered by experts from the city's Disaster Preparedness board, the LAFD and a particularly dour FBI agent was - you're on your own if it comes down. You need to be able to take care of yourself for at least a week.

We all saw after Katrina that you can't count on government help any time soon, so you'd better be able to survive until things settle down. We all know this, of course, but we act like it's not so. We nod sagely and vow to get to it, but do we? I don't know about you, but I've had kits in my house, cars and office for a long time, and I'm going to see this weekend that everything is fresh and functioning. When was the last tme you checked the batteries in your radio (you do have a battery-powered radio, don't you?) and rotated out the old Cliff bars for some fresh stock? Now's the time.