The survival box

rachbc

well of course there is a small chance - but there is a far greater one of my kids being run over going to school - so i so what I can by teaching them how to cross safely. I don't think life is unbearably dangerous or scary - I live my life expecting the best to happen - its much easier and happier that way - even when it doesn't work out how you hope at least you haven't had years worrying about it first!

Alison_Funnell

gratefulforhelp - with the best will in the world expecting parents tend to be very aware of the 'big bad world'. It's how we a programmed so we protect those little helpless bundles when they arrive. My helpless bundle is hopefully about to embarked on a slightly delayed law degree in September so at 42 I am somewhat distanced from that.

I do sort of live within 'strinking' distance of Dungeness Nuclear Power Station (of course that is dependent on how far that is measured!). I don't consider having pot.iod. in the house practical.

But I am prepared for other events. CPR and first aid trained, sign language (though not fluent - simpler converstions) ability to feed the family if all the ATMs and electronic banking went off line for a week (seriously - with us all using cards a lot of the time it really could be an issue), the knowledge how to cook on and keep an open fire/make a camp/dig lats, even how to cope with an 'emergency' all half price sale .

I do not live in a bad earthquake prone area (our 2 were very barely sneezes compared to Japan), or on low ground, but I have a good idea of what to do to prevent causing more harm or trouble for me/others.

Now if only I could master the 'knack' of losing weight!:eek:

GreyQueen

I lived in eastern Scotland during the 1980s and can remember that we were exposed to the radiation plume from Chernobyl. Official advice was not to go out in the rain as there were radioactive thingies in it and not to drink the milk for the same reason. And there were sheep in several parts of upland Britian which were condemned as unfit for consumption due to radiation....

I have a "bail-out bag" as I live in the heart of a city prone to flooding and the Environment Agency website confirms the extent of river flooding would include my neighbourhood (the river is 50 meters away and I am on the ground floor of a block of flats). If the river overtopped, it would smack into my flat's wall and go into the cavity, blow back sewage from sinks, tubs and WC and short out the electricity substation and gas plant which runs our heating and lighting system. I know from power cuts that the inner walkways of Shoebox Towers are inky black if the power goes down. A flood of even a foot or two would render my entire block uninhabitable.

What has struck me about the horrors in Japan, apart from the obvious, is that even in areas which were unaffected by the tsunami, like Tokyo, that panic-buying emptied supermarkets and neighbourood stores alike in hours and that the dispruption to the distribution chains caused by fuel shortages has meant that they cannot be re-stocked easily. Japan invented the concept of "kanban" supply chains, what we in the west call "just-in-time" and when it works well, it is very efficient. However, complexity becomes liability when there is a disruption to transport.

In my part of England we had a crisis with boilers breaking down just before Xmas in our council houses (I book repairs on same as part of my job for the LA). Sometimes they couldn't be repaired because the parts were in Scotland and couldn't get down to us until the roads were passable to a lorry. If road disruptions, caused by weather events or an unreliable supply of fuel, ever become the rule rather than the exception, businesses will have to review centralised distribution chains or run the risk of having the goods in one place and the dissatisfied customers in another......

gratefulforhelp_2

Alison_Funnell wrote: »

gratefulforhelp - with the best will in the world expecting parents tend to be very aware of the 'big bad world'. It's how we a programmed so we protect those little helpless bundles when they arrive. My helpless bundle is hopefully about to embarked on a slightly delayed law degree in September so at 42 I am somewhat distanced from that.

You're right of course, and how lovely about the law degree:T

I do sort of live within 'strinking' distance of Dungeness Nuclear Power Station (of course that is dependent on how far that is measured!). I don't consider having pot.iod. in the house practical.

But I am prepared for other events. CPR and first aid trained, sign language (though not fluent - simpler converstions) ability to feed the family if all the ATMs and electronic banking went off line for a week (seriously - with us all using cards a lot of the time it really could be an issue), the knowledge how to cook on and keep an open fire/make a camp/dig lats, even how to cope with an 'emergency' all half price sale .

I do not live in a bad earthquake prone area (our 2 were very barely sneezes compared to Japan), or on low ground, but I have a good idea of what to do to prevent causing more harm or trouble for me/others.

Now if only I could master the 'knack' of losing weight!:eek:

And me!!................:rotfl: