| Disaster preparedness is a must: Mother Nature is | | | | windstorms, snowdrifts, earthquakes, floods, |
| not always kind. | | | | tornadoes, lightning strikes, tidal waves or disease |
| Park managers, campground owners, canoe rental | | | | from bad drinking water or unsafe sanitary |
| personnel, lifeguards, rangers and recreation | | | | conditions. They do not expect to have tree limbs |
| directors: you are special. You and many others | | | | or electrical lines falling on them. They do not |
| have responsibility for the safety of what the | | | | expect to be engulfed in smoke or pollution. |
| rest of us take for granted when we get back to | | | | They do not expect to be "out of luck" in case of |
| nature. Because we are creatures of our | | | | medical emergencies such as heart attacks, |
| environment we calm down by being one with | | | | strokes or other sudden serious health problems. |
| nature and part of creation, at least briefly. It | | | | Being away from civilization has its limitations. |
| might be a beach, a nature trail, a park, a golf | | | | Your clientele are not to be confused with the |
| course, a campground or a bike trail. There is a | | | | pioneers and settlers of old who went into the |
| beauty and tranquility, a time out from the | | | | unsettled wild knowing full well that many of them |
| hustle-bustle. Life can be beautiful. It also needs to | | | | would die from the experience. |
| be safe. | | | | Bottom line: it is unfair, but you will be held |
| Nobody wants to get away from it all only to be | | | | accountable for disaster preparedness. It also |
| in the middle of an environmental disaster, | | | | means that you will win "customer loyalty" in |
| whether major or minor. People do not set up | | | | direct proportion to the success you have at |
| picnics and outings or go camping and fishing in | | | | keeping the place safe, relatively comfortable, and |
| order to get tic bites, snakebites, spider bites or | | | | sanitary. In other words, "being one with nature" |
| be attacked by fire ants. | | | | does not mean "raw nature" in the eyes of most |
| They do not go back to nature seeking | | | | people. |