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You and your family have survived the natural or man-made disaster but your home has been destroyed.

Proper preparation and drills ensured that your family gathered at the designated location. Everyone is uninjured and your daughter brought the Emergency Preparedness Kit (Go Bag, Disaster Supplies Kit).

Congratulations!  You were prepared.

To celebrate the good fortune, your son and daughter lay out the first meal from your rations.

Six hours later, your son is vomiting, your spouse is nauseous, and you have abdominal pains and diarrhea. Your pet is retching. What went wrong?

Twice in the past seven days, President Obama has designated Oklahoma counties as major disaster areas.

On February 15th, President Obama declared:

"... a major disaster exists in the State of Oklahoma and ordered Federal aid to supplement State and local recovery efforts in the area struck by severe storms and tornadoes during the period of February 10-11, 2009.

The President's action makes Federal funding available to affected individuals in the counties of Carter, Logan, and Oklahoma."

Tragically, an Oklahoma girl was huddled with her parents "inside a mobile home bathroom" when it was torn apart during the Lone Grove tornado.  She survived but her parents did not.

At least eight people are confirmed dead and more than a dozen injured during last evening's tornado in Lone Grove, Oklahoma.

Could this tragic loss of life have been prevented?

Maybe, maybe not.  Having survived a rogue tornado on our Oklahoma wheat farm, I'm not convinced.  However, today's meteorological forecasts stack the odds in your favor.

The challenge is not to let malaise overcome the incessant forecasts of watches and warnings.

What is the difference between a tornado watch and a tornado warning?

Do It Now!

    In other words, prepare and practice now before the storm comes.  Now is the only moment in which you have any control.

• 600,000 homes and businesses without power

• 12 fatalities

• 77 Oklahoma counties under federal emergency declaration

As Oklahoma exits tornado season and enters ice storm weather, is your business prepared?

A couple weeks from now mark the anniversary of the mid-December 2007 ice storm. The above figures for Oklahoma’s most devastating ice storm dwarf the previous high of 255,000 without power during the January 2002 ice storm.

Fire departments and the media often remind us that changing daylight savings time is an ideal time to replace smoke detector batteries and test alarms. A couple of dollars and a few minutes could save a life.

  Did you know that this is National Preparedness Month?  Have you heard?  Do you really even know what it means?

  Didn’t think so.  With multiple hurricanes, the presidential election, and stock market woes, apparently there has not been any time for the media to mention (or for some to prepare for) a potential disaster. 

08.28.2008

"We've never had anything serious happen."  This was the recent response from a high level manager of a large, local business as to why his company did not have any written plans for disaster response and recovery.  Isn't this always the case?  We naturally do not believe that a disastrous event will happen to us until it actually occurs. 911, Katrina, and the great Northeastern Power Blackout of 2003, are just a few examples.  But what about the thousands of local events?

A long time in planning and development, the new Biby Associates, LLC Web site is about to debut.

The foundation is poured and the framing is up.  Visit often and watch as we enclose the roof and move in the furniture.

See you soon,

Kayaker

aka Web guy