Caveat: Disuse leads to Failure

A major constraint in preparing for a disaster is that equipment and procedures used only during a disaster have a very high failure rate

• Degrade in ways not detected by periodic testing
• Testing has failed to reveal that it doesn't scale up to what is needed in a disaster
• Unanticipated conditions in the disaster.
  Example: during the San Francisquito Creek flood, loudspeakers on the Fire Engines had greatly reduced effectiveness because they were mounted under the vehicle (in/near the water the truck was driving through)
• Lack of experience/training
  • Mistakes in operation
  • Slowness in operation because of uncertainty
  • Problems fixing or working around the inevitable problems
• Use rejected because people choose to use alternatives that they are more familiar with (confidence, ease of use,...)