[KYHAM] Report on Health and Welfare

[Ron Dodson]

I greatly appreciate the efforts that you and many like you have made
and continue to make, so someone can rest a little easier and know the
fate of loved ones and friends.

Folks, Bill is right. This is a bad situation and probably will be
bigger than anything ever handled before. Already I see a long term
recovery the likes of which you may not comprehend for years. One thing
good can come from all this which will in no way balance with the great
lose, but it may benefit everyone in the future.  

If people would learn that preparedness and response is everyone's
business! Even down to children old enough to call 911 or use a band
aid. People in general often seem to wait on someone to do things for
them.  They will not take matters in their own hands.  Last night
watching CNN for a while as they talked of bodies in the street.  How
much does it take for someone to just cover them out of respect? Surely
there is something (a sheet, a discarded blanket, something) that can be
used to simply cover the body.  I often hear 911 calls saying "There is
a wreck in front of my house but I won't go see if anyone is hurt.
Someone might be dead..." In my fire department days, I watched a family
sit on their porch while a small grass fire licked at their wooden porch
posts.  A charged garden hose lay on the ground, yet they called to us
to drop where we were working on flames 6 ft high to come put out the
small 1-2 inch blaze in their yard.  I also once took people kerosene
through a blizzard in 1978 with some other firemen. Our truck became
stuck in a snow drift and so we carried the kerosene in cans to the
home, put it in their fuel tank and left while a teen and a couple of
other people who appeared fully fit drank coffee and watched through a
window as we went back to dig ourselves out and continue our run. 

If I sound cynical or even nasty please forgive me.  Just an old soldier
in almost 30 yrs of preparedness and response voicing frustration with a
world who sometimes seem unable... or more likely unwilling, to be able
to save their own belongings or lives. I appreciate those who try to
help themselves even though they really may not be that able or even
physically fit. They do the best they can and often even put themselves
out or do without just to help someone else. 

In an emergency, EVERYONE has a role to play.  Many of you realize that
and for that I thank you. Everyone, keep up the good work! I'm proud of
you!

73, 
Ron Dodson, KA4MAP
SEC Ky