[KYHAM] You Can Lead A Horse to Water...

[Ron Dodson]

Someone a long time ago coined the phrase, "You can lead a horse to
water but, you can't make him drink."

While this was aimed at our four legged friends originally, it now
extends much farther.  I was not surprised yesterday when I heard a
sidebar associated with the predications for this year's Hurricane
Season which begins June 1.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/05/16/hurricane.outlook/index.html

This sidebar story focused on a survey of Florida residents and their
preparedness efforts.  The survey showed that 1 in 4 had no intention of
doing anything different than their day to day activity if a hurricane
warning was given. It further said that less than half of Florida's
residents had made any preparedness planning activity for their own
well-being!  As I thought about this, I wondered how many Kentuckians
(let alone Ky Amateur Radio operators) had actually taken to heart the
preparedness lessons many of us preach and try to teach on a daily
basis.  Would a similar survey of Kentucky residents for general
preparedness efforts be any better or worse???

Ky Division of Emergency Management has a state sponsored web site
http://kyem.dma.ky.gov/ as does Ky Office of Homeland Security
http://homelandsecurity.ky.gov/ .  Many local EMA's, like my own
http://www.kyham.net/emcomm/training/ here in Meade County, have web
sites loaded with specific planning information and tips, but how many
actually use them?  How many hams in our state are still unaware of the
web site at http://www.kyham.net/ that has tons of Kentucky specific
info and planning guidance as well as hundreds of links to other sites?
I hear often from hams, not just in Kentucky, who have assembled binders
for their stations with printouts of all the articles at
http://www.kyham.net/emcomm/training/ for personal use or to use to
create local VHF or UHF training nets.  But, how many more are still
unaware that this is here for everyone to use in our own state?  

Clearly, an awareness campaign MIGHT help, however, many will still
languish in sublime ignorance and complacency.

I ask all of you to help spread the word that while Hurricanes may not
be a major threat to our communities, many other things are!  Use club
newsletters, word of mouth, whatever is available to you to get the word
out that preparedness is everyone's business. Some will scoff.  Some
will listen and act.  If we do not continue to try, we are as much at
fault as those who sit idly by leaving their very lives to chance. 

With this in mind, I plan to have a preparedness checklist for our
upcoming June KEN Training segment.  This will hopefully give you a
chance to take a serious look at where you are in readiness for disaster
and where you want to be.  

Maybe we can't make them all USE the information that is out there, but
we CAN give it a chance that some just might!

73, 
Ron Dodson, KA4MAP
Section Emergency Coordinator
KyARES