Emergency Response
Florida's Failure
I don't understand the reason why people who live in a major disaster zone relies so completely on government. Being part of a government agency in charge of responding to disasters I know that no response pleases the majority of people. In Florida Jeb Bush was most likely way to optimistic in delivering relief supplies to victims of Wilma in under 24 hours. What people don't understand is that the phones are down, many of the 800 mhz towers are down, the VHF repeaters are down. This limits any response because of communication issues. A major response demands good communication. Second there were no major routes open. Trees where down everywhere which limits route choices and can cause people not used to the area to get lost. The solution is for people to listen to the government. They tell us to prepare 72 hours worth of supplies for disasters. This is the average time of response to a major disaster. People get smart... Government can't protect you from everything.
I don't understand the reason why people who live in a major disaster zone relies so completely on government. Being part of a government agency in charge of responding to disasters I know that no response pleases the majority of people. In Florida Jeb Bush was most likely way to optimistic in delivering relief supplies to victims of Wilma in under 24 hours. What people don't understand is that the phones are down, many of the 800 mhz towers are down, the VHF repeaters are down. This limits any response because of communication issues. A major response demands good communication. Second there were no major routes open. Trees where down everywhere which limits route choices and can cause people not used to the area to get lost. The solution is for people to listen to the government. They tell us to prepare 72 hours worth of supplies for disasters. This is the average time of response to a major disaster. People get smart... Government can't protect you from everything.
posted by Azzip at 19:25
1 Comments:
Yeah...but if we know about these things waaaay ahead of time (such as was the case for Wilma), why can't we have supplies already in place? Why wait until *after* the hurricane strikes?
And no, of course people don't understand about that stuff. Most people don't even know what all that jargon means. To them, it's, "The phone line is down," or, "The electricity is out." Hell, it's that way for me. But we also live in an age where we expect government offices to have better electricity/phones/etc than our personal homes--maybe having back-up generators, that sort of thing.
Personally, I don't see the sense in just warning people about disasters. Yes, warn them--but warning alone doesn't do much. It's like trying to get younger siblings to listen, or trying to supervise a group of unwilling employees. We would do better to have items already in place in times of emergencies--store up MREs in places like Florida, which is frequented by hurricanes. Make sure the place where the MREs are store is as secure as possible.
Plus, it's REALLY hard to store up 72 hours worth of supplies on a limited income--hell, it's hard enough to buy a week's worth of groceries, not to mention electric bills and the like. And, frankly, most of our country is on a "limited income" of some kind. Sad, but true.
Anyhow...that's a bit of my thoughts on the issue. *shrug*
Peace.
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