Bob Kerns: Thinking

On fire.

Email, SMS alerts, and Twitter exchange today. This mirrors conversations I had with both roommates (I got moved while waiting for discharged), both in similar circumstances with similar concerns.

People in other parts of the country may not realize the full impact of these fires. This is just one aspect.

(Click through for animated image).

Damn. I just got out of the hospital and haven't had a chance to check on my supply of N95/N100 masks. https://t.co/CQGB6Gm8Il

— Bob Kerns (@BobKerns) October 26, 2019

Smoke from #KincadeFire impacted more parts of #BayArea today as expected. #timelapse #SanFrancisco #California #californiawildfires pic.twitter.com/iib4kXXtiM

— Sandhya Patel (@SandhyaABC7) October 26, 2019

sorry to hear Bob. Hope you get through this safely.

— Sandhya Patel (@SandhyaABC7) October 26, 2019

Mask inventory:
2 new N95
1 lightly used N95
1 lightly used N100
2 new R95
1 pair of respirator cartridges.

My car: 0!!
Wife & daughter's cars: should be nonzero?
Early trip to Home Depot I guess. Wish me luck on finding them at this point.

— Bob Kerns (@BobKerns) October 26, 2019

Mask inventory:
2 new N95
1 lightly used N95
1 lightly used N100
2 new R95
1 pair of respirator cartridges.

My car: 0!!
Wife & daughter's cars: should be nonzero?
Early trip to Home Depot I guess. Wish me luck on finding them at this point.

— Bob Kerns (@BobKerns) October 26, 2019

Really wish we'd installed solar & battery, like is common in South Australia. Or even just a battery.

I put my small rechargeables on to recharge. I'll try to find a UPS tomorrow. I was planning to do all this before I ended up in the hospital, but now it's a rush job.

— Bob Kerns (@BobKerns) October 26, 2019

We need to put some attention to evacuation plans, should it become advisable due to threat of fire, or due to smoke.

We have electrostatic filtering in our home. It will be useless in a power outage.

— Bob Kerns (@BobKerns) October 26, 2019

But I can't evacuate! I have to get daily antibiotic IV infusions @ the hospital here.

— Bob Kerns (@BobKerns) October 26, 2019

This is the email I got from PG&E. We also got SMS messages.

[Numerous tracking links removed.]

Dear Valued Customer, Gusty winds and dry conditions, combined with a heightened fire risk, are forecasted in the next 24 hours and may impact your electric service. To view a list of your potentially impacted locations visit pgepsps.com.   Here is what you need to know: Please have your emergency plan ready in case we need to turn off power for public safety If you have a backup generator, please do a safety check and make sure you have enough fuel to last a few days. Generator safety tips can be found here We will continue to monitor conditions and will contact you with further updates If there is an outage we will work to restore service as soon as it is safe to do so In most cases, we would expect to be able to restore power within 24 to 48 hours after weather has passed Depending on weather conditions or if any repairs are needed, outages (weather event plus restoration time) could last longer than 48 hours For planning purposes, we suggest preparing for multiple-day outages If you see a downed power line, assume it is energized and extremely dangerous and report it immediately by calling 911 For more information, including regular updates, visit pge.com or call 1-800-743-5002. Thank you, Pacific Gas and Electric Company Message sent at October 25th, 7:05 PM NOTE: To protect against spam, some email providers may delay delivery

 

 

Swine Flu

Terry Jones of FluidInfo has a very well written writeup on what we face with this new flu outbreak. It is neither sensationalist nor does it minimize the urgent danger we may face.

Thanks to Randy Parker for pointing me to the article.

A Few Comments on Pandemic Influenza

My opinion is that we are under-reacting at this point. We've long under-reacted to the risk of pandemic influenza.  But at this point, there's no point to panic on a large scale.

Wash your hands. Use hand sanitizers. Avoid large gatherings. If you are sick, take care not to infect others.

If we would all just refrain from moving about and contacting other humans for a few weeks, world-wide, we could eradicate a lot of diseases. Unfortunately, in the case of influenza, it'd be back, unless we did the same for the other species affected by influenza.

I don't think we can avoid the spread of this new strain. But if we can slow it down, we can avoid overloading our medical system, and survival should be much better than otherwise.