Canton on Emergency Management

Emergency Planners Are The Same The World Over

To many in the United States, the recent earthquake in Nepal was a news item that generated momentary sympathy but didn’t have much impact. It didn’t even make the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle, although the death of a single American climber did on the day after the temblor. As the days go on, the story will eventually fade away like so many others. After all, Nepal is a long way off and not a major player on the world stage.

But not for me.

In 2003, my last active duty assignment was to a civil affairs team reviewing US military contingency plans for responding to an earthquake in Nepal. As the subject matter expert on earthquake planning, I met with a number of local scientists, government officials, and representatives of both public and private response organizations in Kathmandu and the surrounding area.

Emergency managers are the same the world over. The people I met in Nepal were as dedicated and professional as any others I have met and their seismologists are among the best in the world. We also shared the same frustrations over lack of resources and support for disaster planning. What was different was the environment in which we operated.

Imagine that 90% of your population lived in rural areas so remote that even helicopters had trouble getting in. Imagine that all your relief supplies had to be carried in on your back or using pack animals. Imagine a world where communications systems we take for granted don’t work or work sporadically, so you have little information on which to prioritize your relief efforts.

Take it a bit further. Kathmandu is in many ways an urbane and cosmopolitan city. But it is also an ancient one built of mud bricks, where you sometimes have to turn sideways to move from one neighborhood to another. At the time of my visit, building codes were non-existent and there was resistance to their implementation. Response resources are extremely limited. Add to this a political situation that has left the country without any real leadership for years, resulting in a lack of prioritization for emergency planning.

This is the reality for the emergency planners in Nepal.

The good news is that help is coming from all over the world. The bad news is that there is little infrastructure available to manage the flood of relief supplies and workers, a paradox that we all face in a disaster. The weeks and months ahead will be tough ones for my colleagues in Nepal and they’ll need all the support we can give them.

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Energy Conservation and Cognitive Dissonance

One of the terms that sticks with me from my college psychology classes is “cognitive dissonance.” Cognitive dissonance is the stress created when you try to hold two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values simultaneously, or are given information that conflicts with your existing beliefs, ideas or values. I think I’m so fond of the term because anyone who has ever worked for the government is confronted with this on a daily basis.

Take the latest word from the California Public Utilities Commission. It seems our efforts at energy conservation have been so effective that some folks are actually paying less than what it costs to produce the little electricity they use. In effect, they are being subsidized by the large consumers of electrical power.

To address this inequality, the PUC is proposing a new rate structure that will set a fixed monthly minimum charge and eliminate multiple rate tiers. The proposal also includes time-of-use rates where rates would rise with demand. This would return the rate structure to something similar to what it was before the energy crisis in 2000-2001.

The proposal sounds fair on paper until one considers the actual impact. Consumers who have implemented energy-efficient practices will see rates increase while heavy users will see their rates decrease. Incentives for conservation via rate tiers would be eliminated, potentially harming the burgeoning solar power industry and slowing the transition to clean energy.

It doesn’t help that public trust in the PUC is at an all-time low due to reports of mismanagement, lack of leadership, and cozy relationships with the utilities the PUC is supposed to oversee. Not surprisingly, those same utilities are strongly in favor of the new rate structure.

So this is a classic case of cognitive dissonance: encourage conservation on the one hand but reward those who don’t conserve on the other. Is your head hurting yet?

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Emergency Management Solutions - April 2015

Emergency Management Solutions April 2015

Featured Article: Write It Like You Say It! 7 Steps To More Effective Writing

Write It Like You Say It!

7 Steps to More Effective Writing

April's Featured Article

Download Write It Like You Say It

Realistic Earthquake Preparedness

This Saturday is April 18^th, the 108^th anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fires. It’s a time when we reflect on the earthquake risk in the Bay Area and do some public service announcements to get folks to prepare.

Too bad you’re not listening.

Yes, I’m talking to YOU! You know that being informed, making a kit, and making a plan is what you should be doing. But since we both know you’re not going to do it, let me give you some more realistic advice about earthquakes.

Here's the good news. You really don't need to worry about earthquakes. Here's why:

• You’re not going to die. The odds of you dying in an earthquake are actually pretty low, given our building codes. However, you’ll probably be injured because you forgot about non-structural hazards like heavy mirrors, filing cabinets, lamp fixtures, and such. You’ll probably be standing in a doorway or looking for a void spot rather than doing duck, cover, and hold. Either that or you’ll forget to keep shoes and a flashlight by your bed and hurt yourself in the dark walking over broken stuff. Where’s that first aid kit when you need it?
• You’re not going to starve to death. It takes about two weeks for the average person to begin to starve to death. Of course, if you have medical issues that require you to eat regularly, start raiding your pantry and hope you’ve got enough on hand until feeding stations get set up. And don’t expect haute cuisine and large portions when they are.
• You’re not going to die of thirst. Water is your most serious concern – you’ve got about three days before things start getting really bad. Stress and fear will also make your feel extremely thirsty. Fortunately, every home comes with a 30 to 50 gallon supply of water in your water heater. Wait – you did strap it down as required by the building code and you do know how to isolate it from contamination (shutting it off from the main supply), right? No? Then you’re going to get real thirsty until water distribution begins.
• You’re not going to be alone. People are at their best in a disaster. You will be helped by people you never expected to be helpful. Neighbors will help neighbors and total strangers will volunteer services and resources. And, criticize it all you like, but we have the best response system in the world. There will be mistakes and screw-ups and it will take time to organize but help will come. It’s too bad you won’t be able to help out because you’ll be a victim, not a volunteer.

Is this getting through to you? You don’t have to do a whole lot. Don’t want a kit? No problem. Don’t build one. Don’t want to do formal planning? Fine. But at least educate yourself on earthquake safety, learn how to shut off your utilities, and make sure your home is safe. Just doing these three things can mean the difference between being a victim and being a survivor.

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What is a Community? A Tail from the Dog Park (sort of!)

 

A typical morning at the dog park

In February I wrote about the importance of community and the importance of a sense of belonging. One of our dog park regulars read the article and pointed out that we had developed our own small community right there in the dog park.

This got me to thinking about the nature of community. Like so many things in life, we tend to think monolithically. That is we think about THE community without necessarily recognizing that the larger “community” is itself made up of numerous smaller communities and that we are members of many communities, not just one.

Take our group at the dog park. Do you really consider a group of strangers who happen to walk their dogs at the same time and place each day a community? Probably not. But over time, that group of strangers has somehow become a group of friends, some of us quite close. We’ve shared the highs and lows of our life, we’ve helped each other out when help was needed, and we’ve had our little spats and made up. We’ve shared movies and books, attended openings of new business ventures, invited each other to social activities – what else would you call this if not a community?

Some of us have even gone so far as to cross over into other communities or create new ones. One new friend became interested in my hobby and is now an active part of our local group. Two other friends share an interest in creating dried food products. Another friend is working on a new business and uses the group as a sounding board for ideas and advice on marketing.

Community is not just about friendship, although it is friendship that binds the community together. It’s really about knowing that you can reach out to the community when you’re in need, with the unspoken assumption that you will contribute when others are in need.

And to think this all came about because we shared a single common interest in dogs!

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