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Long term disaster planning and Scouting.


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The Katrina disaster and the politics of Jambo had me thinking. What if BSA working with disaster relief agencies moved Jambo to locations were a future large shelter would be necessary. Jambo would be held there to test infrastructure. Jambo would move on to new locations each time leaving the capability to house and feed 30-40000 people. Just add people and tents.

Comments?

 

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It is fairly easy to predict where disasters will occur. People love to build along fault lines and next to oceans to view the beauty and horrors of nature. One place would be California (i.e., a combination of sin and natural disaster just waiting for the hammer to fall). The next Jambo could be held in the desert just east of the state. There is plenty of room for people to sit and stand in such an emergency. A large structure could be built and left there just in case 30 million people are homeless. Since most of the land will fall into the ocean anyway, the BSA could purchase a large chunk of it and sell it to the new occupants as ocean front property and make a killing to boot.

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Somehow, I cannot see relief agencies (usually related to federal government somehow) falling over themselves to build us Jambo sites that MIGHT later be used as emergency shelters.

 

Among the difficulties is that they would, by default, be hundreds of miles from the actual disaster in most cases (odd are just as good that they will be IN the disaster zone too!), so how do you get the 30-40,000 people there in a timely fashion? If you can ship the people that far, why not just disperse them through other communities between the hit site and the Jambo site?

 

 

 

On the other hand, I DO sorta wish we could find a use for the various service and civic-oriented groups to help when things hit that generate national levels of interest. The ability to use Scouts to help raise money directly for emergency relief somehow would be nice, but perhaps it would make more sense to use us on a sort of house to house supply drive- like Scouting for Food, but gathering whatever is needed.

 

Many volunteer firefighters apparently send clean uniform parts to fellow firefighters in stricken areas. Because it is a standing plan, it takes little to put into effect- a focused, useful program that does not need national-level supervision to execute. I'd LOVE to see the BSA create something similar, maybe something like new or nearly new blankets.

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" (i.e., a combination of sin and natural disaster just waiting for the hammer to fall). "

 

Uh... wait a minute, Sonny...

 

I don't see that California has any more sin than than the rest of the nation. It may have more MEDIA coverage of a bunch of vocal special interest groups, but that's only what you see in the news. You gotta stop basing your opinions on what the media CHOOSES to show you. Repeat after me... "All media is entertainment!"

 

I live in the Sierra foothills amongst many, many moral, church going, family oriented people, and there are many in the major population areas as well.

 

Don't dis what you don't know, Bro!

 

:-)

 

 

 

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Hunt

I would say yes.

We have a girl who just started Kindergarten at our school. She is from the affected area and arrived here to stay with some extended family. She and her family have only the clothes they had on when they left. We are collecting items for her (girls size 7) and we are going to help purchase her some new "underthings"> Using this one person as a quick glimpse I would say that most uniforms are either lost or damaged.

Really, my uniform and my sons uniform wouldn't have been at the top of the grab and go list for evacuations.

Maybe we could start a Katrina Closet for uniform donations.

Kristi

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Atta Boy CA_Scouter! Well put!

 

If it was not aimed at CA_Scouter, who was it aimed at? A family member of CA_Scouter? A family member if mine? No not me, I don't have people in California! Who was the comment directed to I wonder? I know the statement was not spoken out of turn and down grading a fellow American! I don't feel that the comments made are quite what Baden-Powell had in mind.

 

Trustworthy

Loyal

Helpful

Friendly

Courteous

Kind

Obedient

Cheerful

Thrifty

Brave

Clean

Reverent

 

Remember these words? I am not clear which one applies to the statement that was made about CA_Scouters fellow statesmen. I'll think on it and perhaps I can make one of these words work...

 

Anybody interested in sharing hope and ideas that may better benefit the Scouting program? How about Scouting down South in Louisiana and surrounding states? There are a bunch of great Scouts making a difference in the Hurricane victoms lives? Now these are great topics!

 

By the way, it really feels strange in Town lately! Just today it took about 3 hours to get home from work. I work 33 miles from my house. Traffic was horrible! It concerns me as I witnessed a few examples of Road Rage today! One of which was a fella in an 18-wheeler! Scary! I did neglect to mention that the traffic problems are due to Katrina! In a matter of a few days, Baton Rouge Louisiana became the states largest city by population with the arrival of our friends 60 miles south of us in New Orleans! God bless them! You would not believe what these folks have been through! Watching on TV and listoning on radio from afar does not do justice. One must see with their own eyes the devistation and destruction of life, property and peoples shattered lives. I am here to tell you that there are a bunch of Boy Scouts doing a fine job helping out! I am so proud of these young men and their leaders!

 

Regards,

Knotty Fox

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