Thursday, September 7, 2006

I SAID EVACUATE, NOT EJACULATE

Today they had a practice evacuation from four big buildings in downtown Chicago.  As near as I could tell it was just an excuse for people to dress casually and leave work early.  They walked in a rather leisurely fashion from the huge buildings to a place across the river where some tents had been sent up a few blocks away.  Meanwhile two helicopters flew overhead for at least an hour, making a whole lot of noise and generally annoying everyone else who was trying to get some work done.

This drill lacked several crucial things:  there was no panic, there were no wounded, no buildings were on fire, and I didn't see anyone running through the streets carrying shoulder mounted rocket launchers.

I think only thing resembling a REAL evacuation today in downtown Chicago got flushed down the toilet.


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

HA! That is hysterical! What did Daley have to say about it? Did some people who didn't know it was routine get worried?

Anonymous said...

No one wants to be the next Mayor Nagin. The wonderful thing about practice drills is they give everyone in the emergency services units a chance to finish their employee goals before evaluation time. The general rule of thumb is to take the time required for evacuations and multiply by a factor of ten.

I bet they were done by lunch. Anything else would have cost overtime.

Anonymous said...

no emergency drill is complete without President Bush flying over in AIRFORCE ONE while gaping out the window

Anonymous said...

On a note of complete seriousness, I recall being one of only 2 nurses on duty in a private psychiatric hospital on the night shift.  A fire broke out in the attic and had been burning through the roof for 2 hours before we even knew there was a fire.  The fire was so out of control before we were alerted, we had only moments to evacuate the 43 bed hospital.

So fortunate we were to have paid attention and learned from our previous disaster drills.

Anonymous said...

I like the T-shirts that say "Bomb Squad.  If you see me running....try to keep up"

Chris
http://inanethoughtsandinsaneramblings.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

hee hee, that's how we work in the midwest...slow & borrrrrrrrrrrrring!  But I agree I am sure most used it as an excuse to be off work.  rose