By Sowjanya Goddey and Arash Azadegan, PhD.
Sep 9, 2013
By now everyone one has heard about the destruction left behind by Superstorm Sandy
last year. The largest hurricane to ever
hit the U.S. mid-Atlantic and North East regions, ended up flooding streets,
tunnels and subway lines and cutting power in and around New York City. The
damage was $68 Billion including 7.5 million homes & businesses and costing
over 300 lives. Are we, as advocates and poll bearers of public awareness to be
held responsible for the damages caused by the likes of Sandy? Perhaps or
perhaps not. Nevertheless, our warning systems may be able to do a better job.
Federal and state agencies declared before the storm that 90%
of the East coast would get affected but did not announce what kind of damage
it could impose. There were neither clear warnings nor proper evacuation
protocols across the coastal areas issued by the government. At the minimum,
this caused areas of confusion.
For instance, even though the forecast for sandy was
fantastic, not issuing clearer hurricane watches or warnings along the New
Jersey and New York coasts were a clear drawback. In comparison, the hype
factor of hurricane Irene (last year’s weak sister to Sandy) was a clear
contradiction. Irene did cause a significant amount of damage in New England
area, but it was nowhere close to the hype that was created prior to the event.
So, the Irene hype created a false prediction, which left people in a fix as
what to truly believe.
Another area of confusion was in not issuing
hurricane watches or warnings along the New Jersey and New York coasts. Lack of
clarity in communicating the message to general public was a problem.
For instance, The National Hurricane Center issued
warnings that the storm would become extra tropical and thus not become a
hurricane as it pushed inland. To the general public, the message is unclear. What
does “extra tropical” really mean? Moreover, the National Hurricane Center allowed
the local National Weather Service offices to issue their own warnings. Finally,
the information issued by NHC or NWS were all over the place. For instance, some
of the warnings such as “High wind warnings” were not only issued along the
coasts where Sandy made landfalls, but also as far south as North Georgia. The
broader the area that the warnings affect, the larger the worry and concerns
become for the public.
State and local officials issued mandatory evacuations orders
for many thousands of families in the low-lying areas and also shut down the
mass transit systems just hours before the super storm hit them. Although,
people who could afford to evacuate and bunk in at a friend or relative’s place
or at the luxuries of a hotel did evacuate for their safety. What did the
others do? They stayed back assuming the damage would not be major since there
were no dramatic warnings. If people were
told to evacuate their homes, then many people did. But lack of preparatory
time and the lack of infrastructure in the face of such surges caused chaos.
In the end, we couldn’t escape the deaths and destruction
induced by both of these storms. This is where we have to ask ourselves – how
much information is too much or too little? How to broadcast the to be issued
warnings to general public in a simple and less complex way? How to process the
issued data? To what extent, can we
relay on it?
So the aftermath was the wrath of homes, loss of lives,
flooding, shortage of food and water, shortage of disaster shelter homes,
gasoline shortages, power outages, closure of roads & public transportation,
non-operating traffic signals, closed out restaurants & diners, businesses
and adding salt to the swollen wound was the fact that it was peak winter. It
was a total chaos. Life came to a standstill for weeks. It took couple of weeks
for some to rebound and months for others. Some of them such as New York &
New Jersey tourism, businesses & homes are still recuperating. We cannot
really blame anyone here. No one saw this coming.
To draw the line is like searching for McKenna’s gold
(looking for a moving target?). Yet, we do have the treasures of past
experiences that can be put to good use. And yet, we cannot assuredly rely on
these. We must realize that every storm is different in its own way.
Ironically, that is the reason they have their individual names. So what does
it prepare us for? Predictable as well as unpredictable conditions!! Every storm has its way of telling
a story on how closer are we getting in predicting the next one.
Our suggestion to everyone of those like us looking for answers to nature’s
fury whether it is a storm or draught or Tsunami is - make the best of the
inventory and tools we have. Strengthen upon the weaker links especially the
infrastructure. Wait, watch and learn! And above all, it’s ok to not know
everything.
awesome article
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