Rest in Peace. Please.

FEMA has declared October to be Zombie Awareness Month.

[Sigh.] I love the zombie genre, but it's been beaten to death. People have run out of new ideas. It's jumped the shark. Even using it to promote emergency preparedness was already done by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) almost a year and a half ago. It's just not fresh or clever anymore.

Maybe it's time to put a bullet in the head of the zombie genre and let it die.

Update:
Perhaps I spoke to soon. This video about CPR is well done and kinda funny.

Bite Me

This is not the recommended way to carry a grenade.

“Terrorism expert Chris Dobson called it 'a chilling indication of what our soldiers are up against.'”

Call me crazy, but I'm not too worried about this guy.

Related posts: Idiot Terrorists

Source: Armed to the Teeth, The Sun (UK)

Big Bang Theory

A team of British physics students calculated the size of explosive needed to carry out the scenario in the movie Armageddon, in which an asteroid was blown apart to prevent it from hitting the Earth -- at the last minute, of course. They found it would take a 96 petaton bomb -- about two billion times more powerful than the largest nuke ever detonated. (It would take less to nudge one away from its path if it's done while it's farther away.)

NewsLI.com (Long Island) has advice on how to prepare for an asteroid "attack":

Disaster Could Be a Benefit — Sort Of

The Smithsonian Institute blog has an article title that's... unusual:

Italian Supervolcano Could End
Eurozone Crisis the Easy Way

Other news outlets highlight the fact that millions could be killed — but hey, let's look at the bright side!

Now if only the supervolcano under Yellowstone would blow, it could solve our problems! Why hasn't Obama thought of that?

Search & Rescue: Nevermind

It's an all-hands callout! On a weekend, so I'm available!

ASRC FCO for 58yo female on Appalachian Trail north of Harpers Ferry. Ground resources needed for hasty searches and containment. All teams send avails. More details on the way.

10 minutes later...

Subj walked out of woods. All teams stand down.

Weddings vs. Tornadoes

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has published advice on an unusual topic for them: weddings.

CDC’s Wedding Day Survival Guide

"We’re sure it’s just a fluke that wedding season happens to coincide with hurricane season. ... Many of us here at CDC realized that planning for a wedding isn’t that much different from planning for a disaster. ...

[Um... 'Kay. Not sure what that has to do with disease control.]

DC Derecho

It never rains, but it pours. Just two days after we closed up the Red Cross shelter for people affected by the Bladensburg microburst, we had to open several more due to another windstorm. I'm managing one for 150 people, including about 60 kids, most of them very young.

This time it was a derecho, and in the same area the microburst hit, wind gusted up to 79 mph -- once again ripping the roofs off some buildings. [Videos after the jump.]

In this area alone, over a million people lost power. At the same time temperatures have hit the triple-digits. Not-so-fun fact: The disaster type that kills the most people in this area is the heat. (Or the humidity, depending on how you look at it.)

Bladensburg Microburst

I managed a Red Cross shelter yesterday for people in Bladensburg, MD whose homes were destroyed in a microburst Friday. A microburst is a very localized but very intense downdraft, with winds that can be as powerful as a tornado.

Dozens of apartment buildings were severely damaged, and hundreds of people were displaced. Miraculously, there were only 2 minor injuries.

We had less than 20 people who needed to stay in the shelter overnight -- but we fed 150 for lunch! We also had Red Cross Client Services and county Social Services interviewing people all day to find out what aid they needed.

Click here for damage pictures.