72 hours (4720 minutes)
That’s an estimate for how long it takes emergency services to establish a base of operations during a disasters. Therefore experts recommend that everyone prepares to be able to support themselves for at least 72 hours in the event that disaster should strike, because it’s likely that you’ll be on your own during this time!
I personally feel that the estimate of 72 hours is woefully low!
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina the United States Government received scathing criticism about their appalling response time. Many died in the first few weeks as the result of no medical attention, dehydration due to the lack of water clean drinking water, many more died as the result of the violence as desperation took hold. The police were so busy with other tasks that there was nobody left to maintain law & order.
The recent events in Japan tell a slightly different story. With extreme weather frequently battering the Japanese coastlines, the government has a highly effective emergency response plan, with teams well-rehearsed in its execution. Despite their incredibly swift response to the tragedy, many still died because they were taken by surprise. Widespread panic took over as shops were emptied of all water and canned foods, despite the government urging its citizens to remain calm.
In the last 10 years there have been countless man-made/environmental disasters, striking the third world, developed & developing countries. Millions of lives have been lost. Perhaps the right question to ask is “how many could have been saved had each person been better prepared”? The likely answer would be “not many”!
Unfortunately due to the incredibly fragile economic climate and widespread poverty less than 20% of the world’s population have the money required to equip themselves with the equipment that would significantly increase their chances of survival. Even the United States of America which is seen as an economic powerhouse has an estimated 43.6 million people (14.8%) living below the poverty line (2009).
With such high poverty in the developed world its little surprise that developing & third world countries suffer so terribly, lack of food, fresh water and sanitation means that life literally hangs in the balance on a daily basis. As quick as countries are to dispatch medical response teams, critical items such as food, water and shelter often don’t start arriving until 168 hours after the disaster has occurred.
You could however argue that the gentleman above is still able to keep it together, and yes hat’s off to him. I’m not trying to be a yuppie but I honestly don’t think that everyone wants to barely “scrape by”, disaster or not! In the event of a disaster it’s highly likely that he would (and probably does) have to fight for every available morsel, since the shelters which may normally support him would have reached breaking point.
In an up and coming blog post I will look more closely at the basic supplies actually needed to survive for 72 hours.
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