Constant Conservative

Michael Totten writes about Gaza and Sderot, where he finds out what it is like to live with the rockets:

“The small number of physical casualties is not because their weapons aren’t working,” he said. “The small number is because the population understands the protection guidelines. They know that they have fifteen seconds to find shelter.”

Fifteen seconds is plenty of time to reach a bomb shelter if you’re already next to one. But what if you’re outside? In a car? What if you’re asleep or taking a shower?

“You have to remember,” Major Deutsch said, “that the damage isn’t the number of physical casualties, it’s the number of people with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The kids in first grade in Sderot were born when rockets were being fired at Sderot. They have lived their entire lives having to think that when they leave the house, when they’re walking down the street, when they’re playing ball, that they have fifteen seconds to hide from an incoming rocket. And it’s not only the kids, it’s the parents. I have a friend who won’t drive with two kids in the car. If the alert goes off he doesn’t want to have to ask himself which of his kids he is going to save. He and his wife don’t go out to weddings, bar mitzvahs, or things like that at night because they don’t want to leave their kids with a babysitter.”

While I can imagine living in this type of environment, I am grateful that we (despite our own set of problems) do not need to live so close to the edge.

The full article, with accompanying photographs may be found here.

Update 0

I hadn’t realized that Jay Reding posted on the same topic with the same title earlier in the day. Here’s the link to his piece.

Update 1

From the comments:

I live in Ashkelon, 30 seconds away from landing when a missile is shot , and although I’ve sympathized with my neighbors down the road in Sderot, after having lived it, I cannot imagine how they managed to survive these past 9 years. It’s indescribeable: in the shower, in the car, trying to fall asleep at night with a knot in your stomach just waiting for a siren, jumping at the sound of the wind or every whining car or motorcycle, running for cover and waiting for the “boom”….I can go on and on. A grad fell across the street from us and it was the loudest noise I have ever heard. We can’t make it to our proper shelter in 30 seconds so opt for a corridor without windows and just wait it out. Have an elderly mother who is deaf and has a special device that deosn’t always go off. And what about people in wheelchairs that can’t get to a shelter? Why didn’t Hamas build shelters for its citizens like Israel did? Too busy building tunnels or just not caring or both. I could go on and on…..but living with the threat of a rocket attack(s) has been the mother of all experiences.