Since becoming a civilian emergency manager my focus has shifted to disasters. Be it the larger international, national or even local disasters. I remember the year my son go married (January 4, 1997) because we had a huge (surprise) winter storm that started the day after Christmas 1996. It went on for days and became a wind and flood event too.
The second national disaster that caught my eye and the emergency management profession's attention was Hurricane Andrew in 1992. I had been working at Washington State Emergency Management for a year and we watched with the rest of the nation as the storm hit, there was a dearth of information and then people realized how bad it was. FEMA got a black eye for the event. The response was the subject of many breakout sessions in emergency management conferences for years to come.
One of the things I remember about "the lessons" from the disaster was Red Cross volunteers being shot at. I guess they deserved combat pay for some of their work there.
Which leads me to how people are celebrating the event twenty years later. See how Country Walk is marking the disaster and their recovery. Besides the carnival atmosphere I'm sure they will be calling people's attention to the need to be prepared as individuals and families.
I keep wondering what the next big event will be. The last one in my mind was the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill.