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  •   over 15 years ago

Hurricane-vulnerable communities

I just saw Spike Lee's "When the Levees Broke".  Civilians came out with their boats to rescue people but there seemed to be few non-civilian boats (Sean Penn quote).  Couldn't communities surrounded by lots of water and vulnerable to hurricanes & flooding have ambulance & medical boats and a plan to deploy them in case of storms?  Of course, the main thing was the fact that the Army Corps of Engineers or rather the Feds of Katrina's time & before didn't return enough money to the community to build levees that would withstand flood waters.

  • 7 comments

  •   •   over 15 years ago

    GrandmaH,
    Ignoring the political issues (always a mine field)  it's interesting that you said that locals were jumping in to help with the resources they had at hand.  Many years ago Japan noticed this tendency for us to want to help our neighbors in times of need, and noted too that many of those volunteers themselves became victims. They realized that people lacked the basic knowledge that would keep them safe and that they needed training that would make their response efforts more effective. Japan initiated a program to train citizens to be disaster volunteers in their own communities. They learned first aid, light search and rescue, the limits of their capabilities, teamwork, family preparedness, etc. Those teams have sprung up around the world.  The Los Angeles Fire Department adopted the program from Japan and it eventually was adopted by FEMA as a national program called CERT.
    I started a CERT program in my rural socal community seven years ago that was fully deployed in the 2007 wildfire season, (answering phones at the firestation, ham radio watching posts on mountain tops, triaging and tagging defensible homes on mountain roads for out of town fire fighters to prioritize their efforts, spraying fire retardant at stretegic locations, etc.). I moved out of SoCal by then but they are still going strong today educating the kids in school, planning positioning of disaster supplies for schools and day care, practicing their skills with drills, and other community activities.
    Perhaps you could help your community form a CERT like group that has a water response focus - and also coordinates with local emergency response. Often the local Fire Department will sponsor CERT trainings.
    http://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/about.shtm
    Beyond CERT there are other focused response groups. In Southern California, for wildfires, there are groups formed that will rescue large farm animals. They have been trained, have a well organized plan of attack, and are recognized by / coordinate with / emergency responders. In their "down" time they promote community education that includes encouraging people to have horse trailers, and train and exercise their horses in their use, as well as plan for early evacuation.  I'm sure you'll agree that in a large event it's unrealistic to expect that a handfull of professional responders will be able to help everyone in the community.  Their priority will be the disabled and vulnerable and places with large numbers of people such as your grandkids in school, hospitals, nursing homes, malls... We all have to be ready to pitch in, even if it's just having a plan to take care of ourselves and our family.  Best of luck.
    Mary

  •   •   over 15 years ago

    I have no doubt that emergency systems, which are decentralized and based on everyday people would be much more effective than established law enforcement and government agencies in a disaster. There are limited resources available in terms of law enforcement and agency personnel, and clearly they would have to limit their actions to the highest priority situations.
    On the other hand civilians are unlimited in resource if they put themselves to the task.
    It is logical that if there was a way to simply coordinate civilian effort along side with the official one, many lives could be saved. I think one of the elements is basis training as a proactive measure, but also an infrastructure that would allow the flow of information and instructions as well as supply of tools to volunteers in the field.

  •   •   over 15 years ago

    My name is Don and I am from Southampton Ny.  I'm currently attending  CERT training.  I will graduate from my initial training in Dec and highly recomend the training to anyone who would really like to be prepared for a disaster and love to help others.  The training is not for the lazy!  I have some medical, life guard and other volenteer expirience.  This is clearly the most in depth program I have been involved in.  The County of Suffolk recieves Federal funding and support for this training and I am sure the most other communities would be eligibal for the same funding and support.  We over here in Long Island have a very large flooding problem.  We do most of our training along-side the Fire Training Academy. 
    I reguards to your concerns about limited resources, you are correct on that asumption.  the ratio in Suffolk is 3000 citzens to every 1 emergency responder.  This is why I give my time to training and hope to help others expand their knoledge in the future.
     

  •   •   over 15 years ago

    Great insight by GrandmaH.  I will offer some navigation clues related to the mind field that you mentioned.  (“Ignoring the political issues (always a mine field)”.   The mind field can be navigated at a high pain cost and injury even if you have the highest of regard for the institutions or agencies or office holder.  The mind field is primarily made up of turf battles, egos and misinformation by key people in key positions.  This translates itself in the form of: thirty second sound bites; DVD presentations that don’t reach vulnerable populations; and groups that need a community strategic approach. 
    Political issues like, who is going to get the credit for being a lone ranger type, funding provided to agencies that use as much money on administrative costs as direct services costs.  Using strategies there institution beneficial rather than costumer service based. 
    My experience is that the disabled and vulnerable populations are more at risk now in critical areas and local jurisdictions don’t have the manpower nor have they implemented other tools in the tool box to mitigate risk factors. 
    Our local CERT group has participated with the various activities with the local jurisdictions however we are moving toward a more refined day to day application of DHS/FEMA strategies to address an all hazard mitigation planning and response.   Contained in presidential directives 5 and 8 particularly there are several recommendations and mandates beyond CERT.   By the way there are many other applications of FEMA strategies to engage the public that offer a higher yield for all parties.  I have used all of them with some success. 
    Charles

  •   •   over 15 years ago

    Charles is right about the make up of the mine field. My mantra on FB and elsewhere is there is no room for p...g contests in emergency management. There simply isn't. Some incorrect information I saw in the first post here follows. I was in Louisiana and very upset we weren't allowed to take water in or bring people out. I understand the reasons behind it now, but can attest to how frustrating it is for a citizen who cares to sit by and be prohibited from helping. When FEMA asked me three times to come for for them, I said no because of that. The third time I said yes, but only because I came out with why I had been saying no and the Community Representative convinced me FEMA "needed people like" me. Then I learned first hand about all of the great people working in disaster recovery as well as the political minefield -- people holding positions they should not be holding due to not being inclined to go the extra mile, to include all citizens in planning and preparedness, or even, sadly, to make sure the planning is done in the first place. Grandma also mentioned the Feds not getting money down to Louisiana in advance to repair levies. That simply isn't true. Two State level emergency manager(s) were set to go to trial for misuse of funds for those levies before Katrina even hit. They hadn't done their job and the funds disappeared. That was not FEMA's fault by any stretch of the imagination and it was a leap of faith for them to put more money in in the wake of Katrina. There was no choice of course, but you get my point. FEMA also took the heat for not putting trailers into parishes in Lousiaian fast enough, but they have to abide by local laws and the locals across the state (many towns and parishes, not all) had been scrambling to pass local zoning laws prohibiting trailers from being placed in their city or parish except for those who were local residents prior to Katrina. 
    Charles, I'm glad to hear your CERT group has been doing so much and working well together. It's also great to see Craig Fugate leading by example and showing emergency managers that planning and preparedness is not a turf battle. It can't be. In fact, that attitude is antithema to preparedness imho.
    best,
    Tamra

  •   •   over 15 years ago

    Trama thank you for your efforts.   Although we do participate with CERT  we do so in spite of the opposition imposed by the local jurisdiction – CERT does not work in the Black community in Harris County it does have very limited presence in some specific neighborhoods but the outreach and sensitivity for minority communities is poor.  People like you, me and the members on our team do what we do because it is what we do.   We have a more robust effort that dwarfs what CERT provides.  This challenge is in part an admission that CERT is limited -- some jurisdictions are not providing services on an equal basis etc.  So keep up the good work and keep learning all that you can to help people. 
     
    Our success has nothing to do with our local CERT leadership. 

  •   •   about 15 years ago

    GrandmaH poses a real problem>  Mary answered well.  Prepared and trained citizens are a "force multiplier" for response agencies.  At issue for most communities is money.  Yea in some cases it is that simple.  How much money should a community spend on stockpiling supplies or equipment that might be rarely used.  Stuff has to be inspected, protected, rotated and replaced.  Not only does it take money but also time.  A community may want to stockpile some supplies, but it wil take a huge commitment to maintain that equipment.  Community vision and commitment will get the program started but it takes a lot of people to provide the behind the scenes support and that may cost money.   

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