Thursday, May 07, 2009

"Thousands evacuated in the US"

It's always fascinating to check the Swedish news online every morning in the office. You might learn important things. Like that there is a "state of emergency" in California due to the swine flu. 

Today I learned, on the first page of one of the major Swedish newspapers that "thousands have been evacuated in the US". Curiously I read on and read that aha - it's here in California... maybe I should know about this... And once again - the news about "state of emergency" that the governor has declared, this time due to the forest fires down south in the Santa Barbara area. After the last couple of weeks you must think that California is a state on the brink of catastrophe, one "state of emergency" after the other...  

But, once again, in case friends and family are worried - the forest fire and the 5000 homes that have been evacuated are in Santa Barbara, some 4 hours away from here and the rest of the 300 million something Americans are just fine.  


And just to clarify for Swedish speaking people - "state of emergency" and "undantagstillstånd" really has two different strengths . A "state of emergency" here is not the same as if "undantagstillstånd" would be declared in Sweden. Actually, has it ever? I don't know the statistics, but the state of California have "state of emergency" a couple of times a year for all kids of reason, flooding, forest fires and usually the average Californian wouldn't even know there was one in effect. It's just a way to coordinate resources and governing in times of extra ordinary circumstances. 

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