9/11 disaster experts in EC

DISASTER management in the Eastern Cape is set to improve after a team of American experts who responded to catastrophes such as the 9/11 Twin Towers attack in New York and Hurricane Katrina spent time training locals.

Veteran Times Square firefighter Mike Meyers, who was at the Twin Towers 20 minutes after the second one collapsed in 2001, yesterday said it had changed the way the world dealt with disasters.

“I always say the very worst of humanity brought out the best of humanity,” he said.

“The world rallied around the New York City fire department and the city.”

Speaking to the Dispatch at a national disaster management centre training course in Port Alfred, Meyers said the attacks resulted in a more standardised global approach.

Before the two planes crashed into the World Trade Centre, he said disasters were dealt with using techniques developed for fighting forest fires.

Nowadays, the approach is more inclusive of all the different government departments that respond to a disaster, and has become the norm all over the world – meaning different countries can help each other at short notice without a problem.

He said the instant command system (ICS) used to prevent and manage disasters evolved after the attacks in the US.

Organiser Thinus Botha, who manages the Eastern Cape Umbrella Fire Protection Association, said 70 trainees from provincial disaster management, forestry, fire departments and local government would be able to better respond and even prevent disasters, thanks to the specialised training.

“The aim is to build up incident management teams across the province that can manage disasters better,” Botha said.

Setting up better early warning systems to prevent the loss of human life before a disaster happened was also key, he said.

Two courses were held in the Eastern Cape – one in Hogsback and the other at Stenden in Port Alfred that included 12 third-year students studying disaster management there.

Since 9/11, South Africa has sent teams around the world to deal with disasters. They have worked with responders from other countries using the same ICS methods.