Are you prepared?
About this time last year, we meandered our way through Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A crazy tourist mecca, but a beautiful part of the country nevertheless. 
I was reading this story about a Wastewater Treatment Plant spill in Gatlinburg Tennessee and couldn’t help but wonder, how does something like a sewage leak of such gigantic proportions happen in this day and age? 1.5 to 3.2 million gallons of waste leaked into the rain-swollen Little Pigeon River and two workers bodies were recovered. To think, the basin that collapsed was only 15 years old! If such a facility collapses with age due to structural failure, imagine the repercussions of an earthquake, mammoth storm or Tsunami on an area that is unprepared and structurally unsound?! This is a wakeup call to us all: kind of like a literal domino effect. When something such as a treatment plant overspill happens and untreated sewage flows unencumbered in to the water system, envision the environmental devastation plus both the animal and human impact and toll. Food for thought, especially right now when we hear about environmental disasters, such as what recently has enveloped Japan and the oil spill in the Gulf. Tragic and life changing, in all ways and forms. Are you prepared for a natural disaster or environmental emergency in your community? What can you do to to prepare? Here’s an Emergency preparation guide to get you started, or at least thinking.
