Monday May 13: the Katrina syndrome

Years ago, a hurricane named Katrina struck the gulf of Mexico. Besides causing untold billions in damage and killing lots of people, it also made tens of thousands of people completely miserable for a prolonged stretch of time. Why? Simple: because the damage from this storm cut people off from the supplies of those items which they -- in a modern nation like America -- had come to expect, and to take for granted.

For example, the water mains into New Orleans were turned off, and a fleet of WalMart trucks carrying bottled water were turned back. Those are facts...WHY these events happened is still in dispute. What remains a fact is that the people of New Orleans had no water for a prolonged period of time, and water is a very important resource, as evidenced by this website put out by the US Geological Survey, an entity of the US government:

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/qa-home-percapita.html


OK, so now previously you have made a list of the resources which you make use of on a regular basis. (Hopefully you remembered water in them somewhere!) Now let's look at the next level: how long do you think you could last on the resources you already have? And alternatively, what could you use as a replacement for those resources of which you have a limited amount?

What you need to do for this assignment is to first of all, make a prioritized list. That is, a list of the most important items, the most crucial resources which you will need to have. Begin with the top priority item, and build down from there. Make it a list of the top eight, and next to each item, define why it is so critically important by explaining what you do with it. And exactly how long it would be before it's lack made an adverse/fatal impact on your life.

Why eight? Because its a good computer number-- 8 bits in a byte. It was also the number of bits in a silver Spanish dollar -- its where we get the term "pieces of eight" from.    

Just a little FYI


send in this assignment by email with your name and the phrase "Katrina syndrome" in the subject line.

cheers,
Mr. L