Page 4 - MWC 9-15-2022s2

The Midwest Cattleman · September 15, 2022 · P4
internet, but the power grid
as well? If it involves food,
water, communications, or
security, we all better have
a back-up plan. What about
getting feed and water to live-
stock, fuel for vehicles used to
deliver that and more. What
if the event is prolonged and
occurs during harvest or the
coldest part of the winter?
Are you prepared?
What history tells us.
This morning the internet When I say ‘Katrina’ what
is down. Not just in our office, comes to mind? New Orleans
but in schools, banks, service and the surrounding area be-
stations, and all kinds of of- came a very dangerous place
fices for miles in several di- in a number of hours after a
rections. As a result, our of- devastating hurricane. For
fice phones are not working, days, people suffered without
cell towers (therefore our cell adequate food and water and
phones) are not working, and other basic necessities. They
many people are not work- waited helplessly for help
ing. The local school recent- from someone who didn’t
ly went completely to inter- show up. They were not pre-
net-based documents which pared. Crime of all kinds
allows all staff and adminis- spiked. The area became
tration to access all their doc- unsafe. It was not a pret-
uments from office or home, ty sight. It was no ‘Mardi
but today or at least this Gras’… it was no picnic. It
morning, no one is access- was not America at its best.
ing any of those documents. The very worst in human be-
Banks can’t do the simplest havior came out for all to see.
customer service tasks be- Compare that to a smaller,
cause that is all on-line. Very but just as dangerous, weath-
few gas stations can sell gas er event that happened a
because their registers or few months later on a major
card services are all on-line. highway in the rural Ameri-
I imagine that there are peo- can West. Hundreds of mo-
ple in state and local govern- torists traveling on a major
ment offices across a three or interstate were stranded in
four county area having an- a blizzard far from any major
other cup of coffee and then town or city. Many were
another because that, at caught off-guard. Many were
least for now, is not on-line. not prepared, many needed
How did we all survive before help, but this story ended
Al Gore? much differently. Farm and
What if some kind of un- ranch families from the area
foreseen event goes on for who heard about their pre-
weeks involving not only the dicament went into action
- finding, rescuing, trans- worked together tirelessly to
porting, feeding, and then use what resources they had
welcoming into their homes to help people whom they had
people whom they had never never met get safely and com-
met. There was no ‘waiting fortably – not just through
for the government to come’... the night, but through a very
there was no waiting for the long week. Many stayed
cavalry… they were the cav- in schools, but families all
alry! across the area also opened
up their own homes for the
It has nothing to do with many stranded travelers.
geography. The generosity and empathy
One might be tempted to shown the more than 6,700
think that it matters where US passengers by our Cana-
on the map you happen to dian neighbors in Newfound-
experience that tragic event land inspired the documen-
that can make all the differ- tary: ‘You Are Here: A Come
ence. I thought so too, until I from Away Story’. True
remembered the story about stories that happened when
a plane full of people on Sep- those planes were diverted to
tember 11, 2001. It and 52 Newfoundland also inspired
other planes from all over the a Broadway musical.
world were forced to sit down None of the people in these
on a remote runway – and stories had trained for their
spend nearly a week in the catastrophe. It could be ar-
town of Gander, on the Cana- gued that New Orleans had
dian island of Newfoundland. more prior warning. What
Gander and the surrounding mattered most? Communi-
small communities closed cation, and a network of good,
all the high schools, meeting willing, caring, resourceful
halls, lodges, and any other people – willing to help but
large gathering places and unwilling to look away when
converted all these facili- others were in need.
ties into mass lodging areas. Let’s say you have your
The 218 passengers on Delta backup plan, your food, water,
flight 15 ended up in a town fuel and all the rest. If you
called Lewis- don’t have your own network
porte, a short of people like those described
distance from above, you’re still not really
Gander. ready – you are not prepared.
There was You still have work to do. It’s
no emergency not a question of if that event
plan, no special will come. There are several
resources, no questions. When will it come,
FEMA - just a and when it does, whatever
small commu- it is, will you be ready? Will
nity of people you be one of those who need
who acted out to be rescued or will you be
of compassion one of the cavalry?
and a sense of
‘duty’. A word KwC
you don’t hear
much anymore.
This commu-
nity of people