Campfyre Stories

Have you ever been in a crisis situation?  Like an actual situation where people are in danger or hurt and you, among others, need to keep it together?

How did you do?

You know, after coming back from Falcon Ridge, I read a number of accounts of the major storm we weathered on Sunday.  It wasn’t until days later that it was labeled a "mini-tornado" (mini because there was no touchdown of a funnel).  I honestly believe that not knowing what was happening and not having that "Oh my gods, it’s a TORNADO" thought looming over us was a big part of what kept people from panicking.

As I stated before, there were no major injuries.  Some people lost some things, but considering the number of people there, it really wasn’t much.  In fact, people stayed really together and focused while it was going on.  Which is not to say that things didn’t get pretty hairy out there for some people, but sometimes you have to put your fears on hold and come back to them when the situation is already resolved.

People keep talking about what "should have" been done, or what "should be" done in the future.  Things like sirens that will alert people to emergency situations or larger security patrols.  The more I think about it, the worse an idea it seems to me.  Again, I think that part of the reason that people didn’t panic was because we didn’t know we should be.  We didn’t know what was going on.  We didn’t have time to think about what we should do.

Some people immediately drove offsite, which isn’t the smartest thing to do in that weather.  Some people wouldn’t or couldn’t get to shelter, needing to prevent their gear from causing damage to other people/things, to find members of their party who were lost or to help "save the world".  Sirens blaring in that situation wouldn’t help anyone at all.  All it would do is cause people to freak out and no longer be calm while still not offering any advice on what to actually do.

To me, with the exception of emergency vehicles sirens sound like:  Panic!  Panic!  Panic!  Few, if any, of them actually offer viable information that can be used.  In fact, if I’m in my house (for example) and I hear a siren blaring, I am most likely going to STEP OUTSIDE MY APARTMENT to find out what’s going on.  I’m pretty sure that the sirens indicate that people should behave in exactly the opposite way to that, but since the noises have never been explained to me (and still occur from time to time), I don’t know what the appropriate response really is.

But if I’m IN an emergency situation, a crisis situation, I know what to do.  Not to be able to plan ahead, but I’m able to assess the situation and fill whatever needs present themselves.  Sirens will distract me, make me wonder what the hell is going on and cause me to panic, at least a little bit.

So what do you think?  Have you been in a crisis situation?  How did you handle it?  How do you react to sirens or other indicators of emergencies?  Do you think that people are more or less likely to handle a crisis well without actually knowing what’s going on?