Our planet’s climate is changing. The impact on our daily weather has been extreme. Look at the tornado that hit northeast Queens, Hurricane Sandy, the amount and severity of recent tornados in Oklahoma and other parts of our country, serious drought in some areas like Mississippi, huge snowfalls in other states and gale force winds causing fires to spread.
One of my concerns with this problem is how to communicate with people when disaster is about to hit. Where do you go? What precautions should be taken? How do you protect yourself and your family? Does everyone know what to do in an impending weather danger?
When I asked where to go in an emergency, I was told Bayside High School or York College. But what if everyone showed up at these locations? What would senior citizens and those with limited mobility and other handicapped conditions do? There would never be enough room to shelter and protect thousands of people at these sites. It would be chaos. This is a citywide problem and probably a statewide and nationwide one as well.
It seems to me that we need to think now about future emergency situations. People must be prepared. It does not appear that we are adequately ready. And remember, we live on an island with a limited number of bridges and tunnels to use. Most of us would be unable to leave.
Perhaps we should consider using a siren system to alert people of a weather danger. Upon hearing the siren, people would then be able to take appropriate action to protect themselves and their loved ones.
We are living in scary times. It brings to mind these words from a spiritual, “I ran to the rock to hide my face, And the rock cried out, There ain’t no hiding place down here.”
Mandingo Osceola Tshaka
Bayside
