EDITORIAL

Emergencypreparedness (orthe lack thereof)

How long will it take your world to ‘‘goto hell in a handbasket?’’ If theFebruary 10, 2013 engine room fireaboard Carnival Cruise Ship Triumphis any indication, the answer is about72 hours. Were I to believe most newsreports of that week, the Triumphincident was rapidly approaching TheLord of the Flies status by the time itreached Mobile, Alabama onValentine’s Day, just a few days later.I am glad that I do not believeeverything I hear on the radio or TVor read in USA Today.

However, the Triumph incidenthighlights a very important and whatI would hope would be obvious fact:Emergencies happen – and they hap-pen when you do not expect them toappear.

I addressed some issues surroundingpersonal emergency preparedness justa few months ago1 and the suggestionsmade in that editorial are still applic-able: Water (first); shelter and food.But, is it possible to prepare for emer-gencies when you are expecting to be(relatively) pampered on a cruise vaca-tion? I submit that it is indeed possibleto make prudent preparations.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jchas.2013.04.007

First and foremost is attitude: I am afirm believer in the ‘‘Stockdale Para-dox’’ as stated in Jim Collins’ Good toGreat2: ‘‘You must never confuse faiththat you will prevail in the end with thediscipline to confront the most brutalfacts of your current reality, whateverthey might be.’’

Next (and in order): Water, shelterand food. The passengers aboard theTriumph had necessities for survival,and sometimes that’s all you are goingto get so it had better be enough. How-ever, that may not always be the case.Fresh water may become a rare com-modity for a time even when sur-rounded by an ocean and food maybecome scarce. (By the way – canyou get fresh water out of sea waterwithout electricity using materialsaboard a cruise ship?)

Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the LosAngeles Times wrote a story on theon February 15 of a tale of two shipsduring the Triumph incident3: Oneship consisting of a panicked clientele,refusing to confront the brutal factsthat the Triumph was dead in thewater. These individuals were hordingboxes of cereal and getting drunk onthe stores of alcohol.

On the other hand, the incident alsobrought out the best in people: Hen-nessy-Fiske reports of sharing food andwater, Tylenol and making shelters outof available materials for others. Thesepeople were the ones that embraced

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the brutal facts of their reality andknew that they would prevail. Andprevail they did. One passenger whenasked if they would ever take anothercruise stated, ‘‘You fall off a bicycle,you don’t ever ride again?’’

I have observed that the human psy-che can endure great pain and diffi-culty as long as they know there is atime limit to the pain. It was refreshingto read the LA Times story; to recog-nize that even in extreme circum-stances there were people who hadthe discipline to keep their cool whenothers around them were losing theirheads.

REFERENCES1. Elston, H. J. J. Chem. Health Saf. 2012,

19(5), 3http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jchas.2012.07.008.

2. Collins, J. Good to Great: Why SomeCompanies Make the Leap and OthersDon’t; HarperCollins Publishers; NewYork, 200183–87.

3. Hennessy-Fiske, M. http://articles.latimes.com/2013/feb/15/nation/la-na-cruise-ship-20130216, accessed 15March 2013.

and Safety of the American Chemical Society 1Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.