Today we finished a security seminar where we learned, among other things, that we will be victims of food poisoning, we will have a car accident, and in our case we have determined that we will get evacuated - probably multiple times.
All this in light of the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Egypt today and Tunisia last week really puts things in perspective.
My friend over at Small Bits has written a great post about what it is like to be evacuated from post and Diplopundit, as always, has all the details about the recent evacuations. The embassy personnel and their family in Tunisia was evacuated to Morocco for a short time and has now returned to post. There are several flights today and tomorrow that will evacuate officers and their families serving in Egypt.
All I can think about is preparation, preparation, preparation. There are so many unpredictable things about living overseas, but there are a few things that we can do now to make the unthinkable a little more manageable. I came away from the seminar with lists of things to do and after reading through some posts and information about the evacuations in the Middle East I added even more things to it. So it's triple spreadsheet mode for me over the next few weeks.
Any tips for a first timer?
All I can say is may the combined force of the blogging community good will be with all those who have been evacuated. My thoughts and prayers are with the officers and families - especially those whose job it is to manage crisis' like this within the embassy. You do a hard job and it doesn't go unnoticed.
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