We Are So Screwed

As if we need more things to worry about concerning our emergency preparedness, a new study about to come out is saying that not even non-profits are ready to respond well to any sort of disaster in the Bay Area, from terrorist attack to earthquake to the Aqua Teen Hunger Force. In a report done by the United Way of the Bay Area entitled "Ready or Not: Ensuring Bay Area Nonprofits Can Serve During Disaster," the conclusion is that non-profits are "more vulnerable to a catastrophic disaster than it needs to be." We love the bland, bueracritic lingo of that statement too-- it sounds much better than, say, "oy, what a mess " or "could be better, but who really knows? To do a better job, they and a bunch of other disaster related organizations are pledging to get together and work all the kinks out.

The jist of the report is that in times of trouble, it's the non-profit people who are able to provide the best relief to the people in need and that they're not ready for it. The problems they're finding are that there's too many gaps in the relief chain, no set standards, and not enough communication with the police and military. Obviously, they call for fixing such things. They also say kind of say that people in the non-profits need to show their game face these days and do not have the "culture" ready to deal with an emergency. The report says that members of the non-profit to prepare for the inevitable disaster by practicing using other groups and examples of organizations more used to disasters such as the "Rex Grossman Fan Club" and "Married Women for Gavin Newsom."