So, this early morning (I work swing shift, so even most night owls were abed), I was looking up foundation requirements for an area we're preparing to relocate to, courtesy of a company required and paid for relocation.
So, I started looking at foundation requirements and learned a lot. Considering that my father worked in construction and taught me a lot, that's saying something.
That I've refused to work in construction also says something. Too much hard work, too little pay. I went into a less physically demanding job, combat field medicine in the military.
OK, the path to that damage was long, convoluted and beyond the scope of this diary.
I noticed a referral for tornado shelters. As our location is within tornado alley, that sounded like something great to review, as the home, on nearly 1.2 acres (the most either of us would consider trying to handle in our 50's and disabilities.
So, I was guided by a Google search of "fema tornado shelter plans pdf", the automatic offerings were just that authoritative and government backed, just what I needed!
http://www.fema.gov/...
Follow me below the HEPA filter for the results of the document's advice.
OK, first and foremost, terrorist attacks, using chemical, biological or nuclear agents is more common than a tornado. At least, that's what I got from the document, so rare are the mentions of tornadoes in the document.
So, I need 26 inches of concrete, preferably reinforced, with a spall lining (not the term they used, it's a military one for the polymer lining to prevent particles from the terrorist missile attack or thermonuclear attack from going into the shelter and perforating our bodies with molten jets of bullshit).
I learned I need a staff of 19 different emergency managers, six fire trucks to decontaminate us from tornado borne pathogens, radiological contaminants or poison gas.
The annoying part is, I have no fucking clue how to build a shelter in a high water table environment where fucking tornadoes are more common than terrorists actually attacking the entire country!
So much for what happens when FEMA is given to the DHS, who also guides the TSA, with the groin groping sociopaths who welcome forces home, from a secure US airbase abroad.
Or accost minor children in a way that, in any other nation on the planet, would result in a felony sexual assault charge.
But, I have learned that terrorist attacks are far more common than earthquakes in California, tornadoes in Tornado Alley and hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern seaboard.
Considering that "fact", it's a moot point, we all died a decade ago, due to all of those thermonuclear, nuclear, dirty bombs, chemical and biological attacks that have happened more often than natural disasters, considering the sheer volume that FEMA sends out to the disaster reporting mailing list. A list that strangely doesn't report terrorist attacks. I guess that's on the secure networks mailing lists.
It's really strange how alive I, my friends, my family and people we rather dislike around us feel.
Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, over? When the Land of the free and the home of the brave turn into a nation of cowards?