Disaster response vital test for Obama
Actions can make or break him on Nov. 6
This can make him, or break him — and he can’t be seen to care either way. A week away from election day, U. S. President Barack Obama has been handed a disaster on a scale that can define a presidency. The sheer size of the area devastated by superstorm Sandy — stretching up the eastern seaboard of North America through the most densely populated, and Democratic- leaning, states in the union — is staggering. Lower Manhattan is under water. At least 48 people are dead. Millions of Americans are without power, with no clear notion of when service will be restored.
But from Obama on down, American officials are responding, publicly at least, with a roll- up- your- sleeves matter- offactness. “New Jersey is a tough place,” tweeted state Gov. Chris Christie. “We will dig out from under and we will be back.”
Already, Obama is drawing plaudits, from Republican Gov. Christie among others, for his handling of the emergency. He should thank his predecessor, George W. Bush, for this: It was the latter’s oversight of the bungled response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 that set the standard for what not to do in a crisis. In every speech between now and election day — and there won’t be many — Obama will abjure any talk of politics, as he should. Republican nominee Mitt Romney can do little now but observe and cheer wanly from the sidelines, as his opponent does what presidents do.
As we watch this unfold from the relative margins, having weathered a glancing blow, Canadians can’t help but wonder: How will we respond, if our turn comes?
Are we prepared, psychologically and materially, to cope with a massive disruption to the systems on which we rely?
Here’s the closest thing to an answer: We’re better prepared than we think, but not as ready as we could be.
Canada has official emergency preparedness plans, coordinated by the federal department of Public Safety. But on an individual level, according to a poll released earlier this week by the Red Cross, many Canadians are complacent. Fully two- thirds of us, the Red Cross found, “have not taken steps to prepare in the event of a disaster.” Almost 40 per cent lack the food and water required to get them through the first three days of an emergency.
Now, the good news: Despite what film and TV tell us about such things, human beings — everyone, everywhere — are hardwired to cope with disaster, particularly the early phases. This is why, during the great North American blackout of 2003, some Torontonians spontaneously directed traffic while others brought them bottled water. It’s what people do.
In Haiti in 2010, after the earthquake, some expected the riot- prone, desperately poor country would quickly plunge into chaos. The reverse occurred. In the absence of established order, survivors spontaneously organized themselves into micro- communities. There were incidents of rioting and looting, captured on television: Those were isolated cases. Even in crime- ridden slums such as Cite Soleil, the public good, however briefly, overrode day- to- day avarice.
In northeastern coastal Japan in 2011, after the tsunami tore up the coast and swept an estimated 20,000 people out to sea, I observed the same phenomenon, even more pronounced.
Entire towns had been destroyed, levelled. There was no wailing or gnashing of teeth. Disaster survivors tend to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and get to work on cleanup. The griping and finger- pointing – and often, the grief – happen later.
As was evident in Japan, countries with first- world building standards, well- provisioned supermarkets and well- trained, well- resourced emergency services inevitably respond more effectively and bounce back more quickly than do poorer jurisdictions. The notion that Canadians, because we are economically coddled relative to people in many other parts of the globe, would not be up to this kind of challenge, is simply wrong.
No one is up to it – and everyone is. Canada is in fact better- prepared than most nations simply because we have an infrastructure, cranes, heavy equipment, resources, and the thousands of skilled first responders, doctors and nurses who are needed in the aftermath of a serious disaster.
That being said, the Red Cross’s warning should be taken for what it is — an admonition. No one can assume that, in the immediate aftermath of an emergency, federal, provincial or local governments will immediately arrive to help.
Chances are they won’t. Hence, the 72- hour rule: Keep enough on hand to last you at least that long. Simple provisioning – a few large jugs of water, canned food, flashlights, a battery- operated transistor radio — can make an enormous difference. This is a matter of a single trip to the department store.
Hurricane Sandy, and the recent series of earthquakes of the B. C. coast, are another reminder that we are vulnerable to nature, in ways no one – not even the two men contending for the most important job on earth – can predict or control.
Canadians should heed that warning and prepare, to the extent we can.