Unthinkable_ Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why - Amanda Ripley [121]
If regular people got as panic-stricken in a crisis as most of us think they do, Flight 93 would have almost certainly destroyed the White House or the U.S. Capitol. “It’s highly ironic,” says Flynn, “that our elected representatives were protected on 9/11 by everyday people.” Latent resilience is everywhere, and it is the only certain defense against terrorism. Not every attack can be prevented, but just enrolling regular people in the everyday counterattack is itself a victory. Because terrorism is not the same as the cold war; it is a psychological war more than a physical war, and in that distinction lies great opportunity. “Fear requires two things,” Flynn says. “An awareness of a threat and a sense of being powerless to deal with that threat.” Without the powerlessness, terrorism is far less destructive. If we understand dread, we can starve it.
After 9/11, small groups of employees at the Sears Tower in Chicago, Illinois, took their fate into their own hands and started arranging their own full-evacuation drills. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, meanwhile, made some attempts to engage the public. It started a program called Citizen Corps, designed to train and organize volunteers. But the groups are run locally, and their usefulness varies wildly. There are 2,300 Citizen Corps groups across the country, but the government keeps no tally of how many people have received training. (I signed up online to participate in D.C. and never got a response.)
In 2003, the government launched a public preparedness website, Ready.gov, which has received over 23 million unique visitors. But it was found to contain some errors and was generally uninspiring (“During a nuclear incident, it is important to avoid radioactive material, if possible”). So in 2006, an intern for the Federation of American Scientists took it upon herself to build a competing site, called ReallyReady.org, that is a bit smarter (“The cloud of dust and smoke from the explosion will be visible and will be carried by the wind. Walk across the direction of the wind, away from the dust cloud.”).
These people have discovered that the more they learn about the things that scare them, the less scared they feel. The first and most important task is to get smart about risk. Depending on where you live, your most likely threat may be a hurricane or an earthquake, two very different problems. There’s no need to prepare for everything.
Beware of warnings without data. It’s important to rely on facts here, as opposed to emotion. Local TV news is a terrible way to judge actual risk, as we have seen. So whenever possible, look for actual risk data. What are the chances of a plane crash happening to me, given how often I fly? What are the chances of a terrorist attack affecting me, given where I live and work? These questions seem obvious, but they are very rarely part of our conversations about risk. Getting smarter requires an almost countercultural dedication to facts over emotion.
The website for this book (www.TheUnthinkable.com) has clear-eyed, specific advice based on relative risk—a thinking-person’s survival guide. You can also look for your state’s homeland-security or emergency preparedness website to get a list of the major threats for your region. Then systematically prepare for those risks. But do it holistically. Don’t just stockpile water like an automaton; learn about the history and science of the risk and try to conduct a dress rehearsal for your brain. It doesn’t need to be elaborate. It can just mean taking the stairs out of your office building once a week.
If possible, involve your whole office or your neighborhood in this exercise, not just your family. You will all be in this together, so it’s wise to get to know one another in good times—not just bad. You’d be surprised how receptive people are if you give them a chance.
If you are, for whatever reason, particularly frightened of something that is not on your risk list, then prepare for it, too. The more control you feel you have, the less dread you will feel day to day. And the more