Re: Comet impact in the Eastern United States - Feasibility of Evacuation

In article 
<360958ab-857f-4e1b-adae-50027f6a792b@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
 Matt Browne SFW <matt.h.browne@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> On Mar 9, 6:37 pm, jdnic...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (James Nicoll) wrote:
> > In article 
> > <606fddac-d790-45bb-aed8-76aa6aae7...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> > Matt Browne SFW  <matt.h.bro...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >
> > It is very unlikely that the Earth will be struck by a large enough
> > object in the next five billion years.
> >
> >         In fact, even if we move the goal posts to mere mass
extinctions,
> > there's only one mass extinction that is thought to have been caused
by
> > an impact and lots of large craters that are not associated with 
> > extinctions
> > at all. Your garden variety flood basalt seems to be worse for the
> > environment and any cooling event that leads to a snowball or
slushball
> > Earth would also be very bad.
> >
> 
> I'm actually not talking about mass extinctions here. Our species will
> survive. Most species will suvive this. I'm talking about a comet
> which is larger than the meteorite that hit Tunguska in 1908, but a
> lot smaller than Chicxulub. An impact that is far less dangerous than
> the flood basalt events you mentioned. I'm talking about impacts which
> are quite possible in a timeframe of several thousand years. 

> How would
> we deal with this? 

We can't and won't. It's simply not doable.

> How can we prepare for this?

We can't. We can try to prepare for the aftermath, but doing anything 
about the event itself is a concept so ludicrous it defies even 
semi-serious consideration.

> Is evacuation an option? 

Only on the "I'm packin' my wife and kids in the car, and we're heading 
for Arizona - dunno what you got in mind!" scale - As far as organized 
evac, there's not enough trans****t, and no place to put the trans****tees 
(never mind the logistics of tying to feed 'em all)

> Should FEMA have a plan ready when needed?

FEMA should have a plan to hunker down and hide, because they're not 
going to be able to do anything except get in the way (See also : 
Katrina)

-- 
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