Muhlberger's Future History

In a holiday pamphlet from my township government, the Community Emergency Management Coordinator says:

Pandemics remain at the top of the list as the next emergency disaster. Prepare yourself as the effects of a pandemic could be devastating.

Now I'm pretty sure she is just reinforcing the idea that people have to be prepared at all times to care for themselves for 72 hours until government has a chance to swing into action. There was a disastrous storm this summer and the power was out for about exactly that long. When you live in a rural area on the edge of Northern Ontario, and get your water from an electrically-pumped well, being prepared for outages is a really good idea.

But one thing that comes across is the idea that someone knows what disaster is next. Indeed, you can easily find on the web that there is a lot of guessing on pandemic chronology.

But face it, it is just guessing. As storm-battered British Columbians how sure they are about the next "emergency disaster."

Image: victims of the 1918 flu, which killed a great-aunt of mine.