I am the executive secretary for our ward and I was in Bishopric meeting Sunday as we were discussing the stake callendar.  I pointed out that the Stake was having an emergency preparedness and emergency communications meeting in February and that we needed to send the ward communications specialist.  I got blank stares from the Bishop.  "Who?", he asked.  I told him he needed to send whoever is in charge of the emergency communications for our stake and indicated it might also be the ward emergency preparedness person.  "Well can't you and brother Jones cover things, you guys do that Ham Radio stuff anyway."  I pointed out that yes we did do that but that this was more than just some Ham Radio operators and that the stake emergency ham radio group already met once weekly at the stake center.

Then the real shocker.  "Well who is our emergency preparedness person for the ward?", asked the Bishop.  After some thinking one of the counsellors said, "Oh it's brother Johnson."  Now I'm getting really panicked because this brother hasn't been active in over a year.  Most recently he was hospitalized and nearly died.  Now I'm thinking at this point they would say something about calling someone else for this.  Nope.  Their only response was once again that brother Jones and myself could handle it.  I pointed out that we would both be there but there was more to this than a couple of guys who have radios and FCC licenses.  That there were other ways to communicate and that we had no idea what would happen in an emergency for the stake to communicate.  More blank stares.  "Well how else would you communicate in an emergency?", they asked.  I pointed out that in the past the Aaronic Priesthood/Scouts actually had drills where they would act as bike curriors to carry and deliver messages to various parts of the ward so that Priesthood leadership could communicate in certain emergencies.  More blank stares.

Now I'm really nervous because I assumed there was already a plan or proceedure in place.  This is the same stake where an entire town and ward was completely cut off from power, communications, their own homes, etc due to earthquake damage.  People could not go into their homes and were basically camped out on the lawn.  Only emergency personel were permitted in and out.  It was a total dissaster.  This happened in the early 80s but you would think with Katrina, 9-11, and the potential for a whole list of other dissasters there would be something in place, some proceedure book, some sort of plan so the saints at least on the leadership level would have some idea of what to do beyond their own personal preparedness.

This comes on the heels of a meeting at the beginning of December where we were asked for input for ideas for what to do on the fifth sunday of some months for Priesthood and Relief Society.  I suggested it might be a good idea to discuss emergency preparedness as it had been several years since any such thing had been done in the ward.  I was informed that it was a good idea but others suggested teaching other things.  Nothing was ever set or decided on as far as emergency preparedness.  We did go through the first half of the first chapter of the new Joseph Smith book for the first fifth sunday which seemed sort of redundant as we already had the schedule for lessons from the book for the whole year and chapter one would be covered the next week.

I just do not understand with all the dissasters that hit various parts of the country including our own state why there seems to be little concern for these sorts of things.  Just in the last couple years in our own state we have had fires and major storm damage that displaced people from their homes, cut communications, and caused huge problems.  Storms in the north of the state caused huge power and communications issues.  No power, no phones, closed roads, etc for weeks in some areas.  Then we had huge wildfires that caused mass evacuations in the southern part of the state.  Just this week there were massive floods, mudlides, and severe storm conditions that resulted in road closures, property damage, power outages, and communications issues in the south part of the state.  But all is well in our part of Zion.

Frankly, I'm not so concerned about my own family.  We are pretty much ready in most areas and in the areas we are lacking, we are on track to get them done soon.  We also do not live in the city where the ward is located but an outlying rural area so if something did happen, in most respects we probably would be on our own anyway.  I do worry though about my friends and other family in other parts of this ward though.  I for the life of me cannot understand why things like getting a girls camp director or chorister in relief society seem to be getting more attention than this.

Am I just crazy or is anyone else seeing this in their ward?