PUBLIC SERVICE - A POST-DISASTER DELUSION
BOOM!! The hurricane just blew your home away! The good news is… you’ve survived. The bad news? Obvious - no home. Your life, as you once knew it, is rapidly transforming into a memory. What you do in the next 24 hours, could very well define how well you deal with the chaos you’re about to encounter in the coming months. Are you prepared to deal with the many hurdles that darken the hopes and dreams of recovery into a recurring nightmare? Maybe, maybe not. In either case, the human spirit for survival is tenacious and ingenious, and will enable, as it did for ancestors prior to your arrival at this point in time.
In reality, it could be any number of natural hazards that expose our delusions of being in control and capable of conquering anything. Earthquakes, hurricanes, fires, flash floods, landslides, or tsunami’s can completely turn your life upside down, unless there is due respect, preparation and flexibility. Most likely, your entire community, island, state, or country has been affected as well. You’re not alone in feeling run over by a train. So, now what? Common question. Similar to bringing your first born home… now what? Not unlike a new family, surviving post-disaster can be an unfamiliar process, and will require learning, diligence, selflessness, compassion, and… patience, to bring light to the end of the tunnel. No direct path forward, as a plethora of unforeseen events and frustrations become the norm.
So, is disaster recovery complicated? What are the roadblocks? What are the priorities? Are you prepared and have a plan to deal with the first 24 hours, the first month, or the first year? Life teaches us that unless we experience something first hand, we can’t truly understand, nor foresee how we will react. Such is the case for disaster recovery. For first-timers, your weapons of choice will be preparedness, patience, openness, and proactivity. For survivors, each event is unique, and will require application and adaptation of skills and lessons learned. With that said, let’s look at some, and by no means all, of the fundamentals associated with disaster recovery.
5 basic needs. From our childhoods, we’re raised to understand 3 basic needs of survival – water, food, and shelter. But, there are at least 2 others. In the urban search and rescue (USAR) world of response, there is the 3-3-3 rule – 3 minutes without air, 3 days without water, or 3 weeks without food or shelter can spell doom to sustainability. But, post-disaster, there is a fifth and it will show itself within hours after an event… the need for toilets! Not a pleasant topic, but a necessity for everyone, and demands due respect. In some cultures, it’s been acceptable to use whatever ‘facilities’ were available – from night-time visits to the ocean-side reefs at low tide in the Marshall Islands to brushy areas in the Nepali countryside. Acceptable or not, countries like Nepal have had to pass laws against outdoor defecation following their earthquakes in 2015 to discourage such practices.
Without proper community-wide sanitation, entire communities and countries are at risk. One look no further than the cholera epidemic that swept through Haiti, after the January 2010 earthquake, to understand the impact of a sanitation nightmare. According to a June 2017 New York Times article, approximately 10,000 Haitians died from the disease, and another half a million were infected. Disinfection and treatment centers sprang up throughout Haiti to address the crisis. Yet, it was only partially effective, as Haitians use walking as a primary form of transportation. Once connected to the footwear, the disease spread rapidly across the country, and it has yet to be contained.
For luxury-laden developed countries, precautions against sanitation-related disasters are often undertaken through purposeful, dynamic building codes that are highly enforced. In New Zealand for example, following the major earthquakes of 2010 and 2011, the need for toilet facilities became reality, as the infrastructure systems were heavily damaged. Curb-side porta-loos ‘adorned’ neighborhoods for months, bringing a new form of community relationship that had been lacking. The upside of the loo invasion, was a new appreciation for functioning wastewater treatment facilities. As a result, many New Zealand communities elevated the importance level of wastewater infrastructure from “… high value to the community…” to “Structures with Special Post-Disaster Functions”. This re-designation carries increased qualitative and technical considerations for the assessment of existing, or design of new facilities. The outcome - existing and new wastewater facilities must now be fully operational within hours or days after an event in many communities.
It will be a process. Natural disaster events are not convenient. The post-event mass confusion in one’s self, livelihood, home and community can be unsettling. As a rule, the human brain resists rapid change, preferring slower, more manageable bits. With the physical destruction of buildings and surroundings, the increased activity beyond the day-to-day routines, and sometimes a loss of life, the brain is forced to re-program itself, and relatively quickly. Objection to this newness will be naturally manifested in any a variety of emotions, all part of the recovery and healing processes.
Recovery from physical body injuries is a slow process, and there’s no reason to believe that emotional trauma won’t follow a similar process. It will be vital for the brain to embrace the recovery process and ‘what is’, in order to move forward, the better of two choices. Debris removal, structure repairs, increased aid worker presence, heightened activity levels, and new construction are positive sensory inputs that communicate to the brain that better times are ahead. New life will be breathed into the community, and a new normal will overtake the negative, in due time.
Out of the comfort zone. Back to the question of… Now What? Instead of resuming the usual daily routine of shower, breakfast, work, and any number of other activities, the body is anxious. We’re not comfortable. Similar to the feelings experienced during an earthquake, there is a ‘fight or flight’ instinct. Most people react in ‘flight’ mode, needing to get away from the uncontrollable forces. Others, sometimes with special training, understand the benefits of staying put, as the ‘fight’ mode requires presence of mind, and realization that at the end of the day, all will be ok.
What the hell do we do now?! The house is gone, the loo is down, and nobody is available to help because they’re in the same position. First, recognize this feeling is only natural, and part of the process. It is well known by psychologist disaster responders, that one of the most effective means of dealing with this newness post-disaster, is to remain active. Keeping physically active (cleaning up debris, helping others, etc.) allows the brain it’s necessary time to process the new normal. The initial feelings of discomfort will evolve into diligence to overcome, subconsciously feeding the will to survive.
Tame the Tiger. A wise friend once said… “The knife must first go through the fire, to be of use.” Emotions of confusion, sadness, despair, hopelessness, upset, and many others will invade the psychi post-disaster. Again, these are normal feelings, not to be denied, but accepted as part of the process. Newton’s Third Law states… “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” So, for each of the aforementioned, there is an opposite feeling that can push in the direction of recovery. Clarity, happiness, joy, encouragement, and calm will prevail to give birth to the new tiger, capable and strong.
Know the resources. Up to this point, discussions have focused on the ‘me’ and how to manage immediate needs in the post-disaster environment. However, early on in the response phase, it will be imperative to establish links to resources that may come available to navigate through the maze of confusion. There may be no links, as was the case in Haiti, as the initial chore was to simply clear the streets of fallen souls. Fortunately though, hundreds of NGO’s and a hundred thousand aid workers from around the world provided much-needed aid and support, that a destroyed, corrupt government could not.
Or, one could be in an environment with a functional disaster recovery plan where food, water, medicines, and temporary shelters are available as needed. NGO’s and private organizations may slowly filter into the communities providing financial, material, and human resources to initially respond, and later help the community recover. Regardless of the situation, seek to learn of and use the resources.
Perhaps the number one theme in the USAR system and of special attention post-disaster is preparedness. One’s most valuable resource is often one’s self. Assembling an initial response bag of items designed to prevail for the first few days can save lives. This simple action may provide the stability and calm to see through the chaos, allowing cooler heads to prevail and make rational decisions.
Players. A host of players participate in natural disaster recovery – police, fire, USAR, military, NGO’s, private corporations, financial donors, international aid organizations, volunteers, local and regional government agencies, and politicians, to name a few. And, each player comes with their own agendas, resources, constituents, donors, voices, and expectations. It can be a free-for-all. Even with the ultimate outcome being recovery, the individuality and objectives of each player are usually short-lived and rarely extend beyond a year. If the efforts aren't guided by persons with effective disaster recovery experiences, the results can be unnecessary inefficiencies and waste.
Focus can easily shift from restoring the lives and livelihoods, to managing inexperience and mistakes, or navigating the logistics of working in a new region. Through this process of providing aid, it becomes painfully clear that NGO’s and private corporations are first and foremost, businesses, always aware of the bottom line. With a few exceptions, many aid organizations respond event-to-event, and don’t have the luxury of balancing red numbers with large reserves accumulated over time. Protecting the bottom lines and profit margins to remain sustainable, often comes at the expense of the initial objective - providing aid to victims. This is one of the reasons why aid organizations are inefficient and highly criticized for their inability to achieve their objectives.
Natural disasters wreak havoc and chaos. That’s the initial disaster. What can follow often times is the disaster-within-the disaster – inefficiencies, mis-managed funds, inexperienced decision-making, and political agendas. All of these are repairable, as they can be attributed to the well-meaning responders, barring one – political agendas. This is poison to recovery efforts, and if not checked early on, will doom a recovery. There simply is no room for political agendas to control noble efforts when the primary objective is serving people.
Trauma. The ghosts of natural disasters. People react to stressful events in their lives differently. Zombies walked the streets of Haiti post-disaster, staring aimlessly into their new world lacking in meaning or purpose. Disasters can change people emotionally, the reality of which may not become evident for years after the event. From our experiences, adults are usually the first to display post-traumatic stress symptoms, followed by the children, who often suppress emotions until they perceive safety. In either case, trauma is real, and its recovery usually follows physical recovery aspects that return some sense of normalcy to the affected persons or community. The outward signs of trauma are expressed differently, depending on the person. Psychologists with post-disaster experiences, will be invaluable in the recovery of persons and communities deeply impacted.
Endgame – smarter, stronger, best. Regardless of the socio-economic factors, race, religion, or lifestyle… natural disasters aren’t selective in choosing victims. Each person in the line of fire has a voice in reducing the risks to improve their resilience against these deadly events. Preparedness is crucial, not only in having safe home and work places, but in being prepared for post-disaster scenarios that arise from loss of water, food, shelter, electricity, communications, employment, infrastructure, government, and community. At the end of the day, those affected just want to see their lives return to ‘normal.’ Fact is, ‘normal’ does not return, for a new normal will be born, and hopefully with lessons taken to heart for the future.
Politics can play a role, as it can grease the wheels of giant aid machines to deliver resources where most needed. Some people believe their political agendas will be perceived as political service. This ego-fueled oxymoron can only obfuscate an already calamitous arena, and re-direct resources and energies away from intended objectives, without fail.
Disaster recovery is a process, potentially involving thousands of aid workers, volunteers, government officials, USAR, and even the survivors. It can be dysfunctional chaos, it can be filled with heroic stories, it can be disappointing, and it can be incredibly fulfilling. After all, the endgame is helping survivors rebuild and embrace life again. Be smarter and stronger, to build back best!