ubuntu-us-ohio team mailing list archive

[Stephen Michael Kellat <skellat@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

For the sake of the Ohio community, it must be remembered that today's
hyperconnected world presents plenty of conundrums.  When situations
erupt such as in Boston, pictures and video of tragedy travel fast. 
This started with the First Gulf War in 1991 and has only accelerated in
pace since then with the number of communications connections increasing.  

The first thing to remember in an incident like this is that we're not
there.  While the images feel so close and the emotions are quite real,
time and space separate us.  Local law enforcement and civil contingency
personnel are responding to the situation as fast as they can.  In any
search for a perpetrator of a heinous act, apprehension is not normally
immediate.  

It is quite human to seek answers.  In the immediate aftermath of a
catastrophic event, answers might not necessarily be there to be found. 
In an increasingly connected world where communications move faster and
faster, frustration happens easily when you see senselessness and try to
attribute sense to it.  

>From outside an affected area, the first thing to do is to relieve
stresses on communications lines.  If you have loved ones, wait to
call.  Our *Plain Ol' Telephone System* end of contemporary
telecommunications does have capacity limits.  If the American Red Cross
establishes Health & Welfare check-ins that then provides a rather
alternative channel to get back in touch.  Cellular telephone networks
also have capacity limits and can collapse from overloading.  If you get
an all-circuits-busy signal, leave it be for a time.  

It also has to be remembered outside an affected area that requests for
help flow outwards rather than uncoordinated offers of aid flowing
inward.  The people on the ground closest to the incident know what is
wrong and where help is needed most.  Second-guessing them and playing
arm-chair general from a distance causes harm rather than good.  Local
first responders are in charge until they are relieved or pass the
responsibility on to higher command.  

**IT IS THEREFORE RECOMMENDED** that members of the Ubuntu Ohio Local
Community Team take the time to pursue the FEMA Emergency Management
Institute's independent study course ["A Citizen's Guide to Disaster
Assistance"](http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/courseOverview.aspx?code=IS-7)
to gain an appreciation of how disaster assistance functions in the
United States in general.  Other courses are also available from the
FEMA Emergency Management Institute [to
pursue](http://training.fema.gov/IS/crslist.aspx?all=true) if members
are interested.  

In the meantime, keep the folks in Boston in your thoughts and prayers. 
We continue to live in interesting times.  







{ALSO POSTED AT:
http://erielookingproductions.info/ubuntu/2013/04/34-considering-boston/}