Friday, March 18, 2011

Dr. Irwin Redlener needs to understand the real world.

I listened in stunned silence to Dr. Redlener last night on CNN. Here is a man, who is completely out of touch with reality. So this is what higher education does to a person? It makes you completely senile or insane?

Here's the thing, he thinks that hospitals and various agencies need to spend more money on disaster preparedness. Now don't you think for a split second that anyone is going to do this for free. Guess who will pay for this? YOU, the consumer. Whether it's a government agency (taxes) or a hospital (fees for services) YOU will be the one to pay. They're not going to take it out of their pockets!

Now let's look at disaster preparedness and how often an unprecedented disaster really strikes.
  1. How often has a hurricane, the size of Katrina, hit the US?
  2. How often a hurricane, again the size of Katrina, hits the same spot in the US?

Using handy dandy Google here are the answers, compliments of the US government.
  1. The answer to this question is exactly four. 
  2. That is 1935 Unnamed that his the Florida Keys, 1969 Camille, which hit Mississippi and parts of Louisiana, 1992 Andrew which got Florida and then of course 2005 Katrina, which his Mississippi worse than New Orleans, but if you want to believe the press, then ignore MS altogether.

Now why would anyone outside of Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana want to spend a ton of money upgrading for a disaster that may never come? Admittedly Florida is a sitting duck and the entire Floridian coastline should be wary, but Mississippi and Louisiana really only have small areas within their vast states which need addressing.

This is the kind of thing that bothers me and alarmists such as Dr. Redlener don't just get on my nerves, but they make me angry. Isn't that just as crazy as believing that Armageddon is upon us? If someone handed you a Get Saved leaflet warning you about Armageddon, would you scoff? Then why are we not scoffing at this? Both Armageddon and a natural disaster will happen, but neither can be predicted and worrying over them both is silly.

Here's the deal, no matter how much you prepare, disaster will happen when it wants to and at a strength that is unimaginable.

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