General Honore's Advice- Texting

I just read a really good book, Survival: How a Culture of Preparedness Can Save You and Your Family From Disasters by Lt. General Russel L. Honore' (U.S. Army, retired). He was the commander of Joint Task Force- Katrina, the officer on the ground in charge of all active-duty military forces sent to Louisiana and Mississippi.

I liked the way that he stayed completely apolitical in this book. He especially explained the policies, traditions, laws and regulations that existed prior to Katrina, and how they prohibited or discouraged municipal, state, federal, and military leaders from doing what they should have done to prepare ahead of time. He had some great ideas for changes that could be made so that the next disaster of that type could be handled better.

It is amazing how much red tape and confusion existed when some leader wanted to accomplish something. And having all the communications systems knocked out made it exponentially worse.

I appreciated the fact that he knew what the people of New Orleans were going through, because he grew up poor and black in nearby Louisiana. He expressed his sympathy for the suffering people, but at the same time explained that it was a cultural thing among the poor to be patient and wait for the government to help in a disaster. He disapproved of that culture, and said that we all need to prepare in our own homes, not wait for the government.

He was very critical of the way that people don't even think about the possibilities, such as all the people who built houses below sea level instead of putting them up stilts. He blamed the local and state government for allowing those types of building codes.

At the end of every chapter he gave ten- to- twenty "Lessons Learned for Building a Culture of Preparedness."

One of the tips that I got from the book was to teach myself to send and receive text messages on my cell phone.

"Text messages were still working for many people even though the cell towers were down. There were a few cell towers out there somewhere with just a hint of life in them. They had enough power to enable people to send text messages.

Anyone who has a cell phone needs to know how to send text messages in the event of an emergency. A text message is a burst transmission and uses only a fraction of a signal whereas a voice call will eat up a lot of bandwidth.

It is especially important for the elderly or the disabled who live in areas prone to hurricane, floods, earthquakes, or wildfires to have a cell phone and be able to send text messages. Learning that simple skill could mean the difference between life and death. " page 117

"Shortly after our arrival in New Orleans, my headquarters in Atlanta began receiving text messages from people trapped in their homes...These people would send a text message to a friend who would forward it to the Times-Picayune, which would then send the message on to First Army headquarters. The message would be sent from there to the Coast Guard search-and-rescue officials with information about where these people were... " page 116.

(Not from the book) I was also thinking about communicating in a disaster where there are no cell towers left. I am really proud of my friend Patti, who just got her Ham Radio license. I am definitely planning to take that training someday and get my license too.