Disaster preparedness

ElderBerry

As your family considers its disaster preparedness plan, please ensure that the secretary has up-to-date contact information for you and your emergency contact. Also, we have re- peatedly seen good results when brothers and sisters are prepared with go bags and are ready to obey direction when they face various kinds of disasters. Please be sure you have a go bag, and review its contents at least once a year. When a disaster strikes, our brothers and sisters may be displaced from their homes. Thank you for generously helping those in need, such as by providing temporary accommodations or other practical assistance. We are very grateful for the hard work of Disaster Relief Committees and others who assist with relief work

They do seem to be very interested in preparedness.

every congregation has a back up meeting location if not the KH. Ours is a very big supermarket well retail outlets just out of town. We have even designated areas around the different car parks for all the groups to meet so that we don’t have 100s in one place.

there is so much effort put into group leaders and their assistants to contact everybody and make sure they are ok.

my question is say we can’t meet at the Hall, and we had to leave our homes for some reason we all go and meet up at the designated locations, then what?

where do we all go if we can’t go back to our homes?

what if some can go back to their homes but some can’t? Are we expected to house those who can’t go back to their homes? Will elders have to assign who goes where?

the new soft touch approach kinda means you do what you think is best not what the elders tell you. I will choose who can and who can’t come and stay with us if there is a major disaster

markweatherill

'disaster preparedness' is all very well but what happened to Armageddon? Surely that's so much more likely than any old earthquake, flood or volcano.

no-zombie

While have a 'go-bag' is good idea (something that few witnesses really understand how to make an effective one, or know the skill-sets required to survive a local natural disaster), I have always been rather cynical about the Governing Body's push to have them. This is because I believe that this whole 'disaster, go-bag and relief committee' thing is to increase the Brotherhood's fear of the future, while making them mentally more dependent in the Organization.

However, as anyone who have had studied EMT healthcare or even deeply read into the events after cyclone Katrina, the Haiti earthquake or the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, in a real emergency you will on your own for three to four WEEKS before there is any outside assistance start to trickle in. Proving a silly two day backpack with a couple of cans of beans, is not going to get you very far.

Like many things the Governing Body says and 'arranges' ... its not going to you any good, when half of your family are pissing blood like sprinklers, while you're are waiting for the Bookstudy conductor's f****'n phone call.

(sorry for the language)

Mikejw

Having a go bag is better than not having one.

having a plan to look after each other is better not having a plan.

they have learned a lot from many different disasters around the world and I must admit JWs have this right.

there is always volunteer disaster committees covering all areas. JWs are nearly always the first in with add within a short time.

Beth Sarim

JWs are nearly always the first with aid in short time.

You gotta give some truth to that.

But? Who do they look after all the time?

Just their 'own'. Right??

no-zombie

With respect Mikejw,

If Witnesses from outside of a disaster area can get in, so can local government agencies and NGOs who have a lot more resources to distribute. And quite frankly, the Witnesses so called relief programs are centered around rebuilding their own Kingdom Halls as their prime mission, not relieving the physical suffering of people.

But this is the thing that really gets me.

Any help offered by the 'disaster relieve committees' goes to congregational members, yet Jesus (the person who's example the Governing Body is suppose to copy) didn't first check people's religious standings before he cured them. And in our Lord's parable of the 'good Samaritan', the Samaritan didn't precondition his help either.

Beth Sarim

The local elders are hounding people for "lists" of phone #'s,names & information and such.

Since when do people need the elders to look after them?

What I think,, its just another method of keeping track of people and keeping tabs on people.

Balaamsass2

The GO-BAG idea is one of the better GB 3.0 ideas.

(I had to smile watching my mom and aunts get excited talking about them in their 80s. Of course, they never really worked out the details of where they would sleep or rest their 80-year-old bones. How they would cook their canned beans, or go to the bathroom.)

For JWs, Go bags are a physical reminder the "END" is near. :) The elders can keep an up-to-date list of WHERE everyone is...easier to monitor. :)

PS: When half our town had to evacuate because of a wildfire a few years ago, we were unable to find one empty hotel room within 150 miles. So having canned food, water and camping equipment eased our minds. With 30k people evacuating, many people ended up "camping" for a week in shopping center parking lots. (we were fortunate the winds suddenly changed when the flames were just a couple of blocks away and spared our home).

As usual, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, (eventually FEMA, the National Guard and some other groups) showed up to help folks within 48 hours. Watchtower...crickets...lol.

LongHairGal

BETH SARIM:

I was puzzled when I read a while back they were asking for names and phone numbers of JW’s relatives.. What if these relatives are being shunned by the JW?

BALAAMSASS2:

With regard to these Go-Bags: I remember asking a JW former friend just where they were going to? Of course I got no answer. What I do wonder is - if some JWs are expecting some miracle or supernatural event to occur.. Like maybe an Exodus.2 ?

TonusOH

It's a good idea to have some supplies ready in case of emergency.

But what they are prepping for isn't an emergency. Will they really miss out on paradise because they didn't have a bag full of Spam and crackers on the day Jehovah decided to wage his final war on wickedness?

Disaster preparedness

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