Does your all-hazard plan include meteors?
Maybe it should. Or at least Russians will think so after today:
Nearly 1,000 people have sought help for injuries caused by a meteor that exploded in the sky, blasting out countless windows, a Russian health official said Friday.
Chelyabinsk health chief Marina Moskvicheva, said that 985 people in her city had asked for medical assistance. The Interfax news agency quoted her as saying 43 were hospitalized.
The Russian Academy of Sciences said the meteor — estimated to be about 10 tons — entered the Earth’s atmosphere going at least 54,000 kph (33,000 mph). It shattered about 30-50 kilometers (18-32 miles) above the ground, releasing several kilotons of energy above the Ural Mountains.
Apparently, Russia is due such an event about once a century:
The arrival of the meteor provoked comparisons to the Tunguska event of 1908, when an apparent meteor exploded over a remote part of Siberia — more than 1,000 miles to the east of Chelyabinsk — and flattened nearly 1,000 square miles of forest. Studies suggest that that meteor was on the order of 300 feet across when it exploded — far larger than Friday’s visitor.
This serves as another reminder that whether it be a flood of molasses or a rock falling from the sky, unless you’re Bruce Willis there will be events that cannot be prevented and are often not included in planning. I can’t think of a better argument for flexibility and resiliency than rum and meteors.
One of the many videos of the meteor that can now be found on the internet:
Bruce Willis describes a common theory of homeland security in the following clip (from the 1:30 to 2:00 mark):
