Occasionally I run across a news article where I say, “Dang! That’s a good idea!” In communities across the country, civic leaders, health care workers and plain good folks are coming up with constructive, creative ways to handle the chaos a panflu outbreak might cause. Since those articles usually just get buried and lost in the news thread, I thought they deserved their own thread. Banshee posted a great one today:
banshee – at 12:37
Red Cross to feed city’s flu from Tallahassee.com (Florida)
…In the event of a worldwide flu outbreak, families could be cooped up in their homes for weeks, and food could disappear from grocery store shelves. But the Capital Area Chapter of the American Red Cross is taking steps to make sure families in the Big Bend will have food, even if they are quarantined. The agency is looking for restaurants, caterers and others to submit proposals on how much food they could supply in a pandemic and how much they would charge…Floyd also said people should plan now for a possible pandemic, which means having four to six weeks worth of water and nonperishable food. He described pandemic planning as “hurricane planning on steroids…”
http://tinyurl.com/juh2n ____________________________
Having a bundle of these articles in hand to reference might help community leaders see what others are doing, and get them on the stick for their own community.
Excellent idea, Northstar!
One little article I read about 3 weeks ago was posted by — you, I think; in the August 10th news thread — about a town outside of Boston setting up a volunteer neighborhood network. (I made a mental note that the two leaders of the group were MDs)
(excerpt)
Wayland’s Pandemic Flu Task Force is seeking volunteers to form a Neighborhood Network of Wayland residents in case pandemic flu strikes our community.
Our Neighborhood Network will be activated only if a highly lethal form of pandemic flu strikes, a flu which is so severe that society’s structures, systems and social fabric are threatened and/or breakdown (schools/business closures, loss of services, reduced supplies of food, medications, excessive absenteeism, overwhelmed medical services, etc.)
(snip)
Wayland’s Pandemic Flu Network and Plan, hopefully, will enable its residents to endure any potentially tragic pandemic flu scenario with community-cooperative spirit, grace, dignity, knowledge and confidence.”
Oh, THANK YOU, AverageConcernedMom (your handle always cracks me up) I had given up on finding that article ever again!
I am hoping I can dig up one I clipped from a local paper — a nearby (wealthier) community council had started signing preferential contracts with food & other suppliers — in the case of a blizzard, earthquake, tornado or anything *besides* bird flu, they’d be first in line for deliveries. I thought it was just brilliant and sent it along to my own community leaders, saying it was just the common-sense, proactive kinds of actions I’d like to see taken by our township government with regards to AI. Didn’t get an answer, but I hope it got somebody’s attention. I do know my little township recently had a closed-door meeting about how to keep the city government going in a pandemic.
Here’s another interesting one: A Utah newspaper ran an emergency preparedness insert that had to go to a _second run_ because of the interest!
“For the most part, Utahns are stepping up. The Daily Herald’s emergency preparedness section was so popular that we had to do a second press run, which quickly sold out. Even elected officials are following the advice to prepare for the worst. Steve Rundquist, the state’s Community Emergency Response Team program director, said Gov. Huntsman and his staff will be going through CERT training later this year, setting a fine example for all Utahns.”
plan now for a possible pandemic, which means having four to six weeks worth of water and nonperishable food
I’m glad to see that more and more MSM are shunning the gov’t suggestion of 3 days of preps for something a little closer to reality.
Utahns? Is that what residents of Utah are called? I truthfully never knew that…
If only other communities were doing the same things. It would go a long way to saving lives and preventing potentially ugly civil unrest. I wonder if ohter Red Cross chapters will take notice?
If anyone finds a link recommending (officially) a longer prep timeframe, I would surely appreciate it for forwarding to my local PTB.
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