Survival Kits? Emergency Preparedness Specialists?

[Virgil Showlion]

Out of this week's "What do they know that we don't?" files:

A few weeks ago, we reported that for some still unexplained reason, the US Treasury is ordering "survival kits" to its employees overseeing the federal banking system. To wit:

The Department of Treasury is spending $200,000 on survival kits for all of its employees who oversee the federal banking system, according to a new solicitation. As FreeBeacon reports, survival kits will be delivered to every major bank in the United States and includes a solar blanket, food bar, water-purification tablets, and dust mask (among other things). The question, obviously, is just what do they know that the rest of us don't?

We still don't know why. But what makes things even more surprising, and confusing, is that two days before the survival kit RFP soliciation became public on December 4, 2014, a just as curious notice was blasted by the Fed's recruiting Twitter account:

#Hiring an emergency preparedness specialist familiar w/ Department of Homeland Security directives.
#Job ID:10185 t.co/ji0ci42qb8

— Fed Careers (@fed_Careers) December 2, 2014

So the Fed is hiring not just any "emergency preparedness specialist" but one familiar with DHS directives? Here are the details of the position located in Washington, DC: ...

It's... just a good time to stock up on survival kits and emergency preparedness specialists?

Maybe. Maybe not. One thing that's certain is the Fed's house of cards can't stay up forever.

[Tiny]

Considering that the Government moves at a snail's pace perhaps this is the response to what happened 13 years ago (sept 9, 2011) for office worker safety.  

Because of Sept 9, 2011 (and probably the couple of unfortunate deaths in high rise office building fires in my City which followed a couple years after 9/11) there's a lot of new 'safety stuff'.

I work in a high rise building and the building management (or maybe my employer? they could be the same) issues every employee a survival kit. It has a whistle (which I'm sure about 30 seconds after they dropped off the kits to my department - they wished they hadn't put the whistles in). There's other fun stuff, like latex gloves, work gloves, a light stick, solar blanket, water packet, and some other odds and ends.

We also have 'evacuation' plans and need to be able to repeat back where we're suppose to go if told to evacuate, what the phone number to call is (to check in so we can be 'accounted for', and how to identify ourselves (our employee number and name) along with regular fire drills (no coffee cups/water bottles or talking in the stairwells!) LOL!

ADDED: so far the only event that caused the building to activate the safety system was a couple years ago when a big storm rolled thru - we were all ordered to move to interior offices or stairwells - away from the windows. Of course - minutes before the warning my coworkers and me were on the top floor of the building with our noses pressed to the floor to ceiling plate glass windows watching the storm (the clouds were roiling - green and black with flashes of lightning!  I'd never seen anything like that outside of a movie.) ... we were already heading for safety because we had heard the 'thump' of wind hit the windows AND felt the windows shudder.  Thankfully something in our heads said "This is NOT good!".     My building wasn't damaged - but there were other building that lost stone work and windows.   Scary stuff.      

[Virgil Showlion]

Dec 31, 2014 21:20:57 GMT -5 Tiny said:

Considering that the Government moves at a snail's pace perhaps this is the response to what happened 13 years ago (sept 9, 2011) for office worker safety.  

Because of Sept 9, 2011 (and probably the couple of unfortunate deaths in high rise office building fires in my City which followed a couple years after 9/11) there's a lot of new 'safety stuff'.

I work in a high rise building and the building management (or maybe my employer? they could be the same) issues every employee a survival kit. It has a whistle (which I'm sure about 30 seconds after they dropped off the kits to my department - they wished they hadn't put the whistles in). There's other fun stuff, like latex gloves, work gloves, a light stick, solar blanket, water packet, and some other odds and ends.

We also have 'evacuation' plans and need to be able to repeat back where we're suppose to go if told to evacuate, what the phone number to call is (to check in so we can be 'accounted for', and how to identify ourselves (our employee number and name) along with regular fire drills (no coffee cups/water bottles or talking in the stairwells!) LOL!

ADDED: so far the only event that caused the building to activate the safety system was a couple years ago when a big storm rolled thru - we were all ordered to move to interior offices or stairwells - away from the windows. Of course - minutes before the warning my coworkers and me were on the top floor of the building with our noses pressed to the floor to ceiling plate glass windows watching the storm (the clouds were roiling - green and black with flashes of lightning!  I'd never seen anything like that outside of a movie.) ... we were already heading for safety because we had heard the 'thump' of wind hit the windows AND felt the windows shudder.  Thankfully something in our heads said "This is NOT good!".     My building wasn't damaged - but there were other building that lost stone work and windows.   Scary stuff.      

I'm not sure if "13-year delayed reaction to 9/11" is an optimistic assessment or a pessimistic one.