Featured Articles

Preparedness:  a weighty issue?

Posted Mar 21, 2012 by eks

I recently blitzed through Amanda Ripley’s very readable The Unthinkable:  Who Survives When Disaster Strikes — and Why.  It’s an excellent book, but I stopped cold while reading the appendix called “How to Boost Your Survival Odds.” You see, one of Ripley’s six survival tips is “Lose Weight”:  I hate to nag, but there is no workaround here.  The harsh truth is that obese people move more slowly, are more vulnerable to secondary injuries such as heart attacks, and have a harder time physically recovering from any injuries they do sustain.  There is no need to say much more, since there are entire industries devoted to this particularly modern and maddening challenge.  But it’s worth remembering that on 9/11, people with low physical ability were three times as likely to be hurt while evacuating the towers.  Once again, what helps us in regular life helps us in disasters.

Recent PostsComments (190)

Threat Advisory

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Notice

Message: Undefined variable: msg

Filename: views/index.php

Line Number: 87
  • Low
  • Guarded
  • Elevated
  • High
  • Severe