Preparedness - Espoused Theories and Theories in Action

Some time ago I said that when something of value popped up it would be the subject of a blog entry. Well we finally had our Preparedness Status tested.

We are all more likely to lose our jobs, be flooded or burnt or have an accident than to be invaded by Zombies or aliens or even another country, experience a Mass Coronal Ejection or have the country enter a decade long severe economic depression resulting in starvation and rioting.

A couple of weeks ago we were hit by the East Coast Low. The wind gusted in great long bursts all night waking us at regular intervals. Rain didn't fall it arrived horizontally. Between Monday morning and Tuesday morning 233 mm fell and then half as much again in the following 24 hours. Others received even more.

We live on a ridge above the valley and neither expected nor received flooding other than the wine cellar going under as usual and some water in the workshop. Water blew in under the doors and was stopped with a towel or two.

The roof stayed connected (thanks to much work on it 10 years ago) and nothing fell on us. The power failed in the early morning and stayed out for three days. The outage was so widespread and complete that even the telephone exchanges dropped out after 30 hours when their backup systems failed. We didn't know at the time and it didn't effect us but even the town water in our village failed when a 50 metre section of the gravity feed delivery pipe from Chichester Dam was washed out.

We usually look out over the Williams valley and see glimpses of the river in one or two spots as it meanders past. On Tuesday we commenced seeing more and more of the river until we could see the entire river in our view.

Over a few posts I'll go into:

• How well we were prepared and talk about things that worked and things that didn't.

• How historical bias created so much grief for so many people in our area.

• How our processes had to be corrected.

• How the local economy picked up as a result.

Here is a smelly problem.

Assume you have is no water pressure. You get one flush of the toilet then the second person has a problem and especially so when there are solids. Fill a bucket with water and flush manually? Try it. It isn't that easy. Toilets are designed to swirl and mix and flush. A bucket doesn't do the job anywhere near as well. Several buckets give a mediocre result.