Natural Disasters

An article appeared on the CBC website today. Canada's preparedness to deal with major national disasters and emergencies "gives new meaning to the word 'discouraging,'" says a report released Tuesday by the Senate's committee on national security and defense.

This isn't good news at all. What are we going to do, wait until we get bit in the ass? The rest of the world has been hit by tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, etc.. Do the people in Ottawa really think that we're not going to get hit? It's only a matter of time. It's painfully obvious that the worlds climate is changing, and with those changes are going to come a lot of nasty and unexpected disasters.

The Americans got a nasty surprise when hurricane Katrina level New Orleans, but it looks like they learned something from it, and have an ongoing program to upgrade their natural disaster preparedness. Much as I hate to admit it, sometimes the Americans seem a little bit more sensible than us. At least in some things.

I guess politicians have more important things to worry about, like winning elections and stuff. After all, if a major natural disaster should hit Ottawa, you can be assured that all of the members of parliament, the senate and their families will be the first ones evacuated, and the first to get medical attention. So I suppose they really have nothing to worry about.

But what about the rest of us? Are we expendable? We're supposed to be a developed nation, and yet in some things we're one of the most ass-backwards nations on earth. But I suppose if I'm waiting for the government to get their shit together, I'm in for a long wait.