Right Angle - Disaster Relief: Who Helps and How? - 09/01/17

The Right Angle team discusses the logistics of disaster relief and how various levels of government and individuals cooperate with each other to provide assistance to disaster victims.

[philbox]

Credit where credit is due. During the 2011 flood emergency in Queensland the state government openly declared that that disaster had overwhelmed the abilities of all government departments both local, state and federal. That was utterly refreshing and absolutely the right thing to say as it opened up the ability of the untapped populace to go in and deal with the emergency and of course the aftermath. The volunteers were called the mud army. Almost way too many people helping to clean up. There were traffic jams of volunteers and dump trucks getting in and cleaning up. Amazing to see.

[amykepler]

Thank you for seeing the positive during this devastation. It gives me hope for our country.

[hshs]

I spoke of this turf war-mentality among disaster response officials in my 1991 Whole Earth Review article about the Oakland Hills Fire, titled "Confessions of an Outlaw Volunteer". Another man and I had to hide from Oakland police to evade the evacuation order, and shortly afterwards we stopped the fire at its southernmost point, two illegal volunteers with a hose and a shovel. The official firefighters showed up an hour later. You never know what citizens can offer in a disaster by being in the right place, at the right time, with the right equipment.

[StopMediaBiasNow]

Divided we fall, United we stand... Seems that disasters give us something to unite around... And Politicians give us something to divide Don't cross the beams...

[Raven]

America is great because of its family friends and neighbors not because of big government.

[lmccluer]

A couple of things, guest to shed some light on what Bill, Scott and Steve talked about first on getting ready for disasters like this. I spent over thirty years around law enforcement, fire fighting and emergency management. Even though I did this in a small city in Kansas, it works the same way, albeit on a larger scale for every city, county and state government. All these agencies, whether it be city, county, state or federal, all have disaster plans written out, approved by all if the leaders from government as to what each agency will do, what they will do, when they will do it, and how. Those plans are drawn out, written down, gone over, typed up and signed by everyone. These plans are changed as necessary if something should change, and checked every year. They also usually get changed after a disaster if something doesn't go right, which usually is the case every disaster. These agencies do table top exercises, which are required by FEMA and State emergency management offices. The plans are required by law in order to receive state and federal and if the need arises. They also cover every thing, every thing, that is a part of government. Thus, when a disaster happens, no matter the size, the Emergency Operations Plans are brought out, taken to the site where everyone meets, a preplanned sure, with backup sites decided on prior if something should happen to the first location.

Secondly, you talked about people and groups just showing up to assist with evacuating people. For years, government looked down on that, as they, the government couldn't control who was in the area, whether or not they were actually able to help, and even to an extent, could they be trusted going into an area, usually without knowing whether they were criminals or not. After Katrina, it took a somewhat turn, and loosened up on allowing people in. Personally, my only reservations if I was still involved, is knowing who is where, and what they are doing, simply because of accounting for everyone in the disaster area, and are they alright as far as being safe.

Thirdly on the evacuation orders. This goes back to what the guys were talking about, stepping on other people's toes, having agreed upon plans, and doing what is best for everyone involved. Now, I won't say or even pretend that I know what the EOP, Emergency Operations Plan look like for Texas and Houston, but typically the hierarchy for EOP's go from federal, to state, to county then city. Federal, since its responsible for FEMA, makes a decision to say it's a disaster. Local and state cab request a national disaster, but the president has the decision to say yes or no. Then the state governor says he will sign papers saying there is a state emergency disaster, then county, then city. Proclamations have to be made and signed by each. Everyone has to make a decision, but it makes no sense if federal says there should be an evacuation, and state says there should be, then why would a mayor decide there shouldn't be? If federal and state, who the city gets aid from in a disaster, says they should evacuate, then the city should agree. The problem that happens, and just like usual when this happens, resources have to be found, making it harder and more unsafe, for first responders to make rescues AFTER the source of the problem has happened. When first responders are at their busiest taking care of related fires, medical emergencies, congestion issues, electrical, sewer, draining issues, then, they start having rescue issues. But, the mayor and his emergency management director basically tells the president, FEMA, the governor and weather people, you don't know what your talking about, I'm not going to have the highways congested because it won't happen. Well, it did happen. And it was made worse by the mayor not agreeing with other authorities and getting people out, before they needed rescuing. He endangered lives, from what a lot of people are saying, political reasons. It should be because of citizen reasons, not political. He rolled the dice, and it didn't end well.

[Awacs]

What do you think about Calvin Coolidge saying its not the job of the government to help in natural disasters?

[mastring]

I'm about as close to ground zero for this as you can get and not be flooded (got REALLY lucky).
I hear "why didn't you just evacuate". And as regards to Houston and the Houston metroplex I think the phrase "you keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means" pretty much applies. We're talking about 6.5 million people in an area the size of Delaware that would need to move along one of 3 highways. Talk about trying to piss through a straw from 20 yards, and you'll approach the level of difficulty involved in doing something like that.

Yes, it could be done, but seriously. you're moving all the equivalent population of several small states. Not cities...STATES. Not an easy task in the most calm situations. Add on top of that they hysterical media and their constant drumbeat of "WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE" and things begin to get dicey.

[jeffhoser]

My observation following several days of commentary and analyses is the one thing missing from all the critique(s)  is the issue of personal responsibility.  This storm, like so many disasters,  exemplifies the dictum "when you rely upon others to make your decisions,  you put your life in their hands."  Everyone had equal access to the same information for the same amount of time prior to Harvey coming ashore upon which to base their actions sans any "orders or advice"  from  public officials .  IMO, if you're living on flatland only mere feet above sea level along or near a storm coast   and you don't have your personal criterium  for evacuation  and concrete resources and  plans to accomplish it,  you're a fool in paradise.

[ericbess]

Here is the unfortunate truth. If another Hurricane Katrina hit, it would once again be a disaster in every sense of the word. And yet Hurricane Harvey, as much as it has been a natural disaster, has not been a political or humanity disaster. People are pulling to together and taking care of business.

But what's the difference? The difference is the mentality of the area that was hit. Despite Houston being relatively liberal for Texas, Texas in general is a bunch of conservative-minded individuals who understand that when people pull together, they can overcome anything. Meanwhile, New Orleans has been run by democrats for so long that it is primarily a bunch of people who expect the government to take care of them.

The truth is that when Katrina hit, a lot of people DID mobilize and move in to help, just has happened in Houston. But either because of the media response or the response of the people on the ground being saved, the optics were completely different. Perhaps it's just that the Texans are appreciative for the assistance that they received and grateful for any help and not simply expecting it.

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but if so, than the primary difference between the two was the media.

[renaissancenovice]

Bill, you need to watch Kraut and Tea's video on R/K selection. He usually makes great videos but this time he lumped to in with the Alt-right. You also need to make an account on minds.com. It's where the Free Speech people are moving to from Facebook and Twitter.

[abelincoln]

Have they confiscated firearms in Houston??? I know it's early, but I am curious if this occurred in this hurricane scenario.. It got real ugly during Katrina... I hope NOT...

[deltasigma]

…---…
We sure do wish that Texas had that $150 BILLION that Obama gave to Iran

[Chrisfragger]

It's truly disgusting what the mainstream media is trying to do to Trump on this hurricane issue.

I wonder how bad the next few years will be running up on the next election?

[theothertroll]

Lot of YouTubers going there to "help" and make brag videos on "look at me and how great I am" ~ And if you're going to live in an area that is below sea level next to a large body of water where this sort of thing is likely be prepared or MOVE. Being from that area and been through floods and smaller Gulf storms, as soon as I could I got the f--k out.

[Ltulrich]

Regarding Scott's initial words about social media: It would be pretty unfortunate if you and your family died because you weren't popular enough on Twitter.

[PunXXr]

So... was hurricane Sandy not a national-level event?... or is it just that we don't care about New York... never mind, kinda answered my own question there. :P

[fubaralakbar]

Because, you know, us evil conservatives don't care about suffering people. We only care about money...