- thought through the list of things that could go wrong;
- done a risk assessment [seriousness of adverse situation x likelihood of it happening]
- decided how much infrastructure will remain
- made a list of citizen actions
- hired a design team [cute hat R]
- printed 500,000 copies
- send one out to every home in the audience
Don't have an Eircode? live in Ukraine? Your copy of the booklet here.
My sister lived for some years on Erraid, an island off an island (Mull) off the West coast of Scotland, as part of an intentional community affiliated with Findhorn. Erraid is owned by an increasingly extended family, all 200 ha. having been bought ca.1950 by two brothers from Nederland. It was their investment against an imagined Tanks rolling over the bridges of the Elbe emergency. It's 500km from Mühlhausen to Rotterdam: 2-3 days for a tank brigade. The brothers imagined that there would be a few days of sabre rattling when Albert Heijn was still open for hagel and transport infrastructure was in place. It's a schlepp. When we visited in 1996 we got a lift to DUB airport; flew to Prestwick; train to Glasgow; bus across the city; train to Oban; ferry to Craignure; bus to Fionnphort; open boat to Erraid . . . it took all day. But once there, it's pretty robust: well water, long-drop toilets; wood-burning stoves; flour in dustbins; spuds in the garden; fish in the sea.
In 2002, The Government of Ireland got super-specific in their emergency imagination and sent us all a packet of Iodine tablets. Which had zero utility against storms, floods, lines down, car bombs, plane crashes, coronarama ebolarama, cyber attacks. In 2026 the Govt advice is so non-specific as to be vague. I guess they didn't want to frighten the horses by doom-scrolling scenarios as I have just done.
The Government is i n c h i n g towards the integration of infrastructure. One page [/20] of the current advice is to write down five (5) 'Important EirCodes and five (5) 'Important contacts'. One other page "Emergency Ready Tip #5" advises Save a photo of your checklist on your phone. Which assumes electricity to charge the Device. Electricity? The Man expects us to know, note and/or remember our Meter Point Reference Number = MPRN. This is an 11-digit number!! When do they plan to dump all MPRNs and replace them with Eircodes - only 7 characters - which we have all internalized as we did our telephone number when there were only landlines. Prev Rant on the numerology of identity. Prev Skep on the actual utility of Eircodes. I've put the boot in on Eircodes but that train has gone: after 11 years it has some embedded utility - just more integration needed.
Exec.Summ: the checklist from the Be Emergency Ready booklet. Take home: emergencies can be managed but you'll need drinking water 3lt per person per day. In Apr 2024 I endured 10 days without tap water. Drinking rainwater like De Lord intended; and washing in a bucket.
No comments:
Post a Comment