In my 20 year career as in emergency management
professional, I’ve been involved in a number of
major incidents spanning the last two
decades. I’ve experienced some from the viewpoint of a survivor and as a member
of the nation’s premier response team. I know what is supposed to happen, and I’ve
seen what actually, does happen. I guarantee that we are not prepared for the
kind of event depicted in this blog and book.
To my knowledge, there has
never been a major national exercise on the subject. The subject is an evacuation
of a major city during the dead of winter. If you are an outdoor enthusiast, hunter,
hiker or even a student of human behavior, you may have run across The Rules of
Three.
·
You can bleed to death in 3
seconds
·
You can suffocate in three
minutes
·
You can die from exposure
in three hours
·
You can survive three days
without water
·
You can live for three
weeks without food
Lack of shelter is
the third fastest way to die, in a matter of hours thousands could be dead of exposure.
Yet the emergency management community is ignoring
the importance and the immediacy of this fact. I personally have
proposed a number of practical solutions
to this challenge and have presented a dozen
white papers to the highest levels of the federal government. To date, and to
the best of my knowledge, nothing has been done to alleviate this deficiency.
Hence my appeal to a broader
audience in hopes of educating enough people to a
very real danger that is looming in our future.
