{"id":215,"date":"2005-09-22T16:21:50","date_gmt":"2005-09-22T20:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/metasj\/2005\/09\/22\/incapacity-in-times-of-crisis\/"},"modified":"2005-09-22T16:21:50","modified_gmt":"2005-09-22T20:21:50","slug":"incapacity-in-times-of-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/2005\/09\/22\/incapacity-in-times-of-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Incapacity in times of crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a name='a1084'><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I am amazed by the number of people who think that a perfectly acceptable response to an emergency is disruptive, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">individual <\/span>flight.&nbsp; I can think of a number of <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">positive <\/span>responses to emergencies, but this is an entirely negative one. Roads jammed with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.auburnpub.com\/articles\/2005\/09\/22\/ap\/headlines\/d8cpdud00.txt\">uncoordinated traffic<\/a><br \/>\nand hotels overwhelmed in the absence of coordination; people<br \/>\nstruggling alone to cope with traumatic decisions &#8212; what a gray joke.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">A few positive alternatives<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">:<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Individually <\/span>: stay and<br \/>\nprepare when at all possible.&nbsp; Start preparing at the first sign<br \/>\nof possible trouble &#8212; at the neighborhood level &#8212; if you&#8217;re one of<br \/>\nthose people who thinks this is possible.&nbsp; If you are trained for<br \/>\nemergency response, make sure the local response offices know how to<br \/>\nreach you.&nbsp; The well-prepared New Orleans residents on high ground<br \/>\nwho insisted on staying long after the whole city was evacuated &#8212;<br \/>\nthere should be more such people, not fewer.&nbsp; This requires <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">education <\/span>and preparation ahead of time; teaching citizens how to preserve themselves and their things through a <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">tornado<\/span>, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">hurricane<\/span>, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">earthquake<\/span>, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">flood<\/span>, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">drought<\/span>, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">heat wave<\/span>, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">mud slide<\/span>, or <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">electrical\/oil\/water\/food shortage<\/span>.&nbsp;<br \/>\nTeaching citizens how to help their neighborhood in these events; what<br \/>\norganizations to contact and how during the aftermath; how to identify<br \/>\nand shelter affected survivors.&nbsp; It would be worth a great deal<br \/>\nfor one family in each small neighborhood to be well and truly prepared<br \/>\nto ride out a disaster.<\/p>\n<p>And this business of stores and people &#8216;running out&#8217; of key supplies in<br \/>\nthe run-up to every disaster gets old fast.&nbsp; In the first place,<br \/>\neach neighborhood should maintain a decent supply of these<br \/>\nstaples.&nbsp; In the second, if Wal*Mart can figure out how to alert<br \/>\ntheir suppliers to up production every time there&#8217;s a sale, surely<br \/>\ncities can find a way to alert the usual suspects every time there&#8217;s an<br \/>\nimpending disaster-alert.\n  <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Gathering together for shared action<\/span>;<br \/>\nby block, neighborhood, or district.&nbsp; Thursday and Friday are days<br \/>\noff?&nbsp; Great.&nbsp; Have a local neighborhood meeting Wednesday<br \/>\nnight to discuss plans and options.&nbsp; Where are the nearby bunkers<br \/>\nand reinforced buildings?&nbsp; Where would there be food, water, and<br \/>\nshade for a week-long holdout?&nbsp; Where can people bring cars and<br \/>\nbelongings that need better protection from the elements than their own<br \/>\nrooms afford?&nbsp; Oh, you don&#8217;t have a way to contact everyone in the<br \/>\nneighborhod on short notice&#8230; noone responsible for maintaining<br \/>\ncontact numbers for everyone and organizing such meetings?&nbsp; <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Better get on that then<\/span>. <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Gathering together for shared flight<\/span>.&nbsp; Tell everyone to share vehicles; at least three to a car and six to a van.&nbsp; Give <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">direction<\/span>,<br \/>\ntrain citizens how to respond quickly and effectively.&nbsp; Make<br \/>\ncontact with all neighbors; don&#8217;t bring more than two bags with you for<br \/>\nsafe-keeping &#8212; leave them with a protected depot, or secure them at<br \/>\nhome, depending on where you live.&nbsp; Coordinate the use of large<br \/>\ntrucks, buses, and vans; reimburse owners for transporting<br \/>\npeople.&nbsp; Promote central message-boards for ride-shares and shared<br \/>\nfloor-space in nearby cities.&nbsp; Open nearby halls and other<br \/>\nfacilities for short-term emergency occupants.&nbsp; Encourage people<br \/>\nto stay as close-by as possible.&nbsp; <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Expecting<br \/>\npeople to take refuge in hotels and find transport via rental cars and<br \/>\nscheduled buslines in times of disaster is a disaster in itself.<\/p>\n<p>    <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Helpful city responses<\/span>.&nbsp; Recruit<br \/>\na few thousand short-term staff from the ranks of the trained<br \/>\ncitizens.&nbsp; Don&#8217;t have enough of those whom you trust?&nbsp; Start<br \/>\na <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">national emergency reserve <\/span>program asap. &nbsp; Offer <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">safe, guarded repositories<\/span><br \/>\nfor belongings.&nbsp; Provide guards for such repositories, and for<br \/>\nsensitive or priceless areas such as hospitals and museums and those<br \/>\nreinforced hotels\/halls being used as shelters.&nbsp; <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Do not double-book these guards<\/span>;<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"> <\/span>this<br \/>\nis a full-time job.&nbsp; Are people starved for food or water?&nbsp;<br \/>\nSet up ration lines.&nbsp; This is one of your primary duties while<br \/>\npeople remain in the area.&nbsp; Are half-destroyed stores and<br \/>\npharmacies vulnerable to looting?&nbsp; Gather key goods in an orderly<br \/>\nfashion, to distribute or preserve them.&nbsp; Are there armed people<br \/>\nwandering the streets?&nbsp; Give them something useful to do, a<br \/>\npartner, and proper gear.&nbsp; No spare gear for such<br \/>\nsituations?&nbsp; <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Better get on that, then.<br \/>\n    <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am amazed by the number of people who think that a perfectly acceptable response to an emergency is disruptive, individual flight.&nbsp; I can think of a number of positive responses to emergencies, but this is an entirely negative one. Roads jammed with uncoordinated traffic and hotels overwhelmed in the absence of coordination; people struggling [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[213],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-metrics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iVvB-3t","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}