Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Five days after the storm there are still bodies in the streets, desperate people looting for food & water, and the Philippines government can't even seem to establish order or regular relief missions even in the cities while the rural areas have had to go without any help at all. What aid is getting in seems to go exclusively to the cities while rural/outlaying areas literally haven't received any help at all.
Probably there are no truly meaningful posts/threads because the situation is still extremely dynamic. I mean, it takes at least five days to begin restoring some semblance of order/communication/ normalcy after a Category 3-4 hurricane here in the United States.
Because for those with Normalcy Bias, it is being psychologically blocked out in order to not disturb the perfect world assumption.
I suppose for the rest of us, we could say, "see, I told you so"; but there is no point. Nothing will change as far as the typical American attitude about being prepared for much of anything. "It can never happen to me," is our motto in the good ol' US of A and it won't change until something like that does happen here.
Typical American used to be pragmatic. Now it is either do nothing or spend your life building concrete bunkers, rotating food and water rations and target practicing for the end of the world.
We have gotten accustomed to thinking that EVERYTHING is survivable for EVERYONE. In reality, every storm this size will have victims. Sometimes it is lack of prep, sometimes it is just bad luck.
Typical American used to be pragmatic. Now it is either do nothing or spend your life building concrete bunkers, rotating food and water rations and target practicing for the end of the world. Or, create a self sufficient lifestyle, involving superior quality homesteader foods, using locally produced goods as much as possible, and keeping as much GMO trash out of your diet as possible.
We have gotten accustomed to thinking that EVERYTHING is survivable for EVERYONE. In reality, every storm this size will have victims. Sometimes it is lack of prep, sometimes it is just bad luck.
It does underline the exact situation many here fear, but at the same time, those that already prep just see it as more of the same, which is why they prep in the future, those that commonly deride prepping on this forum wouldn't want to address it because it negates their arguments.
Katrina, Sandy, the midwest tornadoes last summer, events ad infinitum happen all the time, the results are usually the same, but the sides are well marked out and not likely to change just because we discuss it here.
Everything we talk about applies to any of the disasters that happen all the time. The preppers say, "see I told you so", the other side says "you are nuts, that could never happen here, the government will provide for you".
Same dance, different song, nothing changes. Those that want to provide for themselves will, those that depend on the government for safety/security and their daily bread and shelter will call us nuts.
What's to discuss?
Anyone who actually believes that the government will provide for them has never gone through a true disaster.
Anyway, it is interesting that those who mock preppers are silent right now. Here's a perfect, real world scenario demonstrating WHY it's a good idea to prepare, and.......silence.
I guess they all still assume that preppers are only preparing for martial law, (makes me laugh every time they say that), and simply cannot grasp that disasters happen all the time. It doesn't matter how many times they see it on t.v., if it hasn't happened to them, well, it's not that bad. Part of the problem is that these huge disasters happen, and the news talks about it for a week, and then....that's it. They move on to the next thing. So people are left with this idea that it's almost like a sitcom, where everything is resolved in a half an hour. (Loose translation, but you get my point.)
Given the Philippines long history of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and never-ending typhoons, if ever there should be a country prepared, on stand by, for something like this to happen, it should be this country. And always prepared for the worst to happen!
If I lived there, I'd be on standby 365 days of the year!
It doesn't help that the Philippines, reportedly, is 10X more corrupt than Mexico, where if you want to become a quick millionaire you become a legislator. With all of Imelda Marcos' millions she stole from that country, money sitting in Swiss bank accounts, not surprisingly she's back there, at 82, in her 2nd term as a legislator, raking in more $$!
Confiscate some of those Swiss bank accounts and send it Tacloban!
Prepping would not have helped anyone affected by the typhoon. Once an area floods, all the food and supplies you have stocked up on are destroyed, washed out to sea, etc. Before Katrina hit, I stocked up on everything I would need if we lost power for a significant amount of time. None of it survived the flood.
As with this and other disasters, I can't help but wonder why air dropping supplies is never mentioned. It's not perfect, but it seems like a good way to get supplies fast to an area inaccessible by roads.
The Phillipines is a "bullseye" for Tropical Cyclone activity and yes as destructive as this storm was it wasn't one of those "1 in 100 years storms" that the media wants you to believe... these Super Typhoons occur quite frequently in that area. So nobody should really be too "SHOCKED" that there isn't more extensive coverage on the situation.
Just doing a quick search in Wikipedia... 6 of the 10 "Deadliest" Typhoons to hit the are occured in the last 10 years (this one at #2 and counting). The top 5 most "Destructive" Typhoons in terms of dollars of damage have occured all in the last 5 years, the most destructive one just being 11 months ago! I'm sure once the figures come out after the dust settles on this storm this will be Top 3.
This year alone there were 41 Tropical Systems in that region and 21 of them hit the Phillipines!
Not to be redundant but when a typhoon/hurricane is coming your way you typically have five days to prep or leave. And just like Katrina and all the other bad ones the people who stayed are crying the loudest.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
