Drop, Cover & Wh-a-a-a-t? Falling in Unison off the Cliff

DROP, COVER & WHAT’S THAT YOU’RE SAYING? A-A-A-A-R-R-G-H
…as We Fall in Unison off the Cliff

Give me your hand—there ya go—oops

The Great ShakeOut across the American continent has become a national obsession: an emergency drill—in case of earthquake, fire, flood or tsunami—which drives people on October 18th at 10:18a.m. to

Drop—Cover—and Hold On

when the adrenalin in your cells prompts you to run—for higher ground.

Sixty-three thousand people along the North Coast west of the Cascades, are participating in 2018—from Seattle, WA through Oregon to Northern California, a fraction of the 10million participants in the state of California as a whole. For comparison, Japan ShakeOut drills involve 4.5million people throughout the year.

Preparedness Tip for the Real Thing

10/18 at 10:18—drop, cover & hold on, when you want to run to higher ground

“Put together a grab-n-go emergency kit for work or home—a satchel or small backpack—to include those essentials you need to survive for a few days, if you have only minutes to leave. On my list are water, medications, extra glasses, a thumb drive with photos of important documents, power bars, raincoat, space blanket, flashlight, hand-cranked portable radio and, most important, chocolate. Everyone in your family should have one—children can include a stuffed toy, game or favorite book”
Prof. Emeritus Lori Dengler, HSU Geology dept. ShakeOut guru, October 2018

She suggests we think about what happens if we’re driving when the earthquake hits. A big one will feel like a blowout. So, to avoid having an accident, slow down and stop until the shaking has weakened. It’s good to rehearse a scenario beforehand without fear, so that it prepares us for an actual event. e.g. what would you do if you happened to be in a low area by the coast or bay where a tsunami might follow?

“Pay attention to your surroundings”, says Prof. Dengler. Is the road damaged? Has traffic made the street impassable? How far are you from roads heading inland?

If the street is still passable, proceed slowly to one of those roads. If you can’t drive, leave your car and go on foot.

Counting Calms the Mind
Preparatory thinking need not alarm us. It gets us in the zone. We are restless souls, our minds constantly on the move: motivated either by fear or duty/habit.

Count von Count’s answer was always to count

If you need something to do to keep your mind occupied during the ShakeOut drill—COUNT. Counting will help calm down the adrenalin rush that all of us feel in an earthquake.

And remember to breathe. 😉

After all, what if we are with children, or older ones with disability access issues? we have to try to make counting fun; but keep it practical. Know your local vulnerable areas: stay clear of highways where emergency vehicles have priority.

According to Kevin Cupples, city planner for the town of Seaside, OR, for the seventy-one thousand people living in Cascadia’s Inundation Zone, that will mean evacuating in the narrow window after one disaster ends and before another begins.

“They will be notified to do so only by the earthquake itself—a vibrate-alert system,” he jokes. And he urges people to leave on foot, since the earthquake will render roads impassable. Depending on location, they will have between ten and thirty minutes to get out. That time line does not allow for finding a flashlight, tending to an earthquake injury, hesitating amid the ruins of a home, searching for loved ones, or being a Good Samaritan.

“You protect yourself. When that tsunami is coming, you run for your life.”
Jay Wilson, Chair, Oregon Seismic Safety Policy Advisory Commission (OSSPAC)

This is where counting is useful—the count itself, like thunderclaps seconds after a lightning strike, helps us assess the magnitude of a quake aftershock and/or tsunami floodwaters to come.

Downtown San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake broke water mains, created unquenchable fires

Making the Great ShakeOut fun for children and elders is worth the effort during a practice run, especially as our gut reaction in an actual event will give us no time for amusement! It also helps the family know what their duties are when/if the Big One comes.

Shaking from a Cascadia quake will set off landslides throughout the region—up to 30,000 in Seattle alone, according to city emergency management.

“It will induce a process called liquefaction, whereby seemingly solid ground starts behaving like a liquid, to the detriment of anything on top of it.”

Fifteen per cent of Seattle is built on liquefiable land, including day-care centers and homes of some 34,500 people. Portland is Oregon’s critical energy-infrastructure hub, a six-mile stretch of the city through which 90% of the state’s liquid fuel pipelines flow and where the majority of its electrical substations and natural gas terminals are located.

Together with earth movement, the subsequent sloshing, sliding, and shaking will trigger fires, flooding, pipe failures, dam breaches, and hazardous-material spills. “Any one of these second-order disasters could swamp the original earthquake in terms of cost, damage, or casualties—and one of them definitely will”, according to Wilson.

Four to six minutes after the dogs start barking, the shaking will subside.

For another few minutes, with or without a functional tsunami warning alarm—sounding more dramatic and perilously like a wobble-up&down squeal than a police siren—the whole NorthCoast region—in disarray—will continue to fall apart on its own.

Then the wave will arrive, and the real destruction will begin.
Seriously.
Count for Great ShakeOut 2018: fifty-nine million worldwide, 20.1 million in U.S.A.
Are you in?
©2018 Marian Youngblood

Millennial or Generational Divide: all Baby-Boomers’ Fault

MILLENNIAL OR GENERATIONAL DIVIDE: ALL BABY-BOOMERS’ FAULT
Monthly IWSG Writerly Hideaway for All Generations

Ernst & Young report on Rise of Gen-Z shows 2001+ iGen overtaking Millennials worldwide

“Millennials are more focused on what’s in it for them. They look outside to others—companies and colleagues—for solutions; whereas the younger people naturally seek to create their own solutions.”
Marcie Merriman, Exec.Dir. Ernst & Young LLP

Children born in 2001 will turn 18 next year. In U.S. many will enter university, vote and, depending on their choice, may smoke and drink alcohol without breaking the law. These are the Gen Zers or iGens. They have never known a non-digital world and have grown up amid a world aware of terrorism and global recession.

They are grandchildren of the Flower Power peace people of the ‘sixties Boomer breakaway. They have seen mistakes made by parents and grandparents, and are determined to do things better.

Psychedelic Dragon by 12-year old GenZ artist

And they have the IT capability to make it happen.

Baby Boomer Baggage
Boomers, born after their parents returned from war in 1945, were radical—not rad like their great-grandkids, but countercultural enough to up-tentpoles and follow their rock idols (as groupies) anywhere; some experiencing Vietnam, took the advice of Berkeley guru-of-all-trades, Timothy Leary:—

“Turn on, tune in, drop out”
Timothy Leary, UC Berkeley, 1966
Mantra of the ‘Sixties psychedelic generation

Millennials, on the other hand, are accustomed to external motivators, according to a recent report by Ernst & Young. Time Magazine called them “The Me Me Me Generation” because they want it all. To Psychology Today they are known as confident, entitled and depressed.

Apex hippie flower power Boomer music curve, Altamont 1969:— “If U remember, U weren’t there”

Born between 1980 and 2000, incentives, trophies, and praise were used [by their parents, the Baby Boomers, themselves struggling to survive] to motivate Millennials as they were growing up. Many Millennials lack internal motivation to overcome career impatience.

iGens are DIY-motivated, independent; i.e. if you want it done right, do it yourself—75% of them believe there are alternative ways to get a good education than attending college, according to Sparks & Honey 2018 survey. Nielsen’s recent research survey finds:

“Each generation comes with a unique pattern of behavior, presenting challenges for those targeting them. Gen Z are bombarded by messages and, as a generation, can quickly detect its relevance to them.”

Demographic switch-over is welcome news for delivery services, gadget makers and the so-called gig economy.
But it means headaches for educators, event planners, luxury brands and travel companies. Golf and world cruising are relegated almost exclusively to Baby-Boomerdom. Golf is now a game where the average age of players is 50+. Tiger Woods, 42, would be pleased to know he is an anachronism.

Rôle-Hopping or Job-Hopping

Which generation burns the candle at both ends? CatGen, of course

Growing up fast in an on-demand culture, the Millennial generation [b.1980-2001] has little patience for stagnation, especially when it impacts their careers. They switch jobs. Or hold down multiple after-hours work themes.

Generation Z don’t want to miss any valuable experience. They flex their super-aware learning antennae by multi-tasking: marketing, accounting, human resources—always with IT—within an organization. Or work from home.

iGens say they’d rather have a reliable internet connection, than a functioning bathroom, according to Nielsen. They make do with what is—while continuing to communicate with a network of roughly 150 friends—see Dunbar Number—via Memes, wordplay, game slang and graphics.

Global Citizens or Spectators

IWSG Anthology contest continues thru Nov 4

Nielsen states 58 percent of adults worldwide aged 35+ agreed “kids today have more in common with their global peers than with adults in their own country.”

Millennials were the first global generation. They saw significant world events in their life times and share character traits and international values across borders.

Gen Z interacts with global peers with greater fluidity than any previous generation. As more people come online and geography continues to shrink, Gen Z see themselves as global citizens.

We Insecure writers are mostly head down tunnel-visioned introverts. Our Ninja Cap’n.Alex helps us draw inspiration from the future—his prequel CassaDawn is reviewed as rivaling Asimov’s Foundation. Asimov (1920-1992) was of the classic “Silent Generation”. Think Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford, Dean Martin and the Ocean’s-11 Rat Pack—themselves prequel to 2018’s Ocean’s-8.

A great way for us—in-between Boomer groups—to cherish our ancestors!
©2018 Marian Youngblood