(Moved from the prior post, edited a bit for improved sarcasm.)
A pair of really stupid responses to a news story got under my skin earlier. I really don’t have a lot of patience for people who only know how to complain that professionals (about whose field they have not the slightest idea) have obviously screwed up. Somehow, the ability to navigate from Webster to Galveston by using a paper map, street signs, and their enormous brain power has made them experts in the field of disaster recovery. (Hint to out-of-towners: drive south on I-45. That’s it.) Obviously, if you place a dump truck in Tiki Island, it can get to the West End more quickly, right?
Theres a reason they say about the military “amatuers study tactics, professionals study logistics.” As an object lesson in that, we’re about to study the profession of Incident Control. Lets say you’re going to pre-position thousands of people for disaster recovery. To be “there” within hours, they’d have to be IN the disaster zone. (There where? Everywhere of course! But especially where I am!!)
This strikes me as unsafe.
So you have to position them well back of the disaster zone. Where and how? Bear in mind that most of these are civilians, who work full-time jobs in other locations. They’re not military. Nor are they entirely self-sufficient; i.e.: they don’t (can’t) bring weeks’ of food and water with them, nor their own housing. So they’d have to be put up in hotels or shelters, and feed them while you wait for the disaster to get out of the way.
But wait, isn’t “well back of the disaster zone” where we’re sending all the evacuees? So, never mind the extra expense, pre-staging all these people just outside the expected (and ever-changing, per the forecasts) disaster zone means that now they’re in the way of the evacuations!
That strikes me as unwise.
Then there’s the human cost of mobilizing thousands of additional personnel from all across the country (we got people from Los Angeles and New York here, ok?); doing so days ahead of time; which requires sticking them somewhere well away from their families for days before the disaster strikes, just so they’ll be that much closer. (Don’t forget travel time, if they’re bringing gear.) That’s bad enough for police, fire and rescue crews, but what about electrical linemen and contractors doing cleanup? They didn’t sign up to become gypsies.
That strikes me as chickenshit. (I wouldn’t put up with being yanked around like that; call me when you need me and not one minute before. This isn’t the Army and I don’t do “hurry up and wait.”)
And then it takes a few days to clear roads and check bridges for the heavy loads they’re about to carry. Thank God we don’t have to deal with too many forests south of Houston (none, really). News crews with the lead rescue personnel moving from Hattisburg to Gulfport, MS reported taking a couple of days to cut a single lane south on Hwy. 49. I’ve driven it before… I didn’t envy them at all.
That strikes me as difficult.
“Helicopters!” Right. Every helicopter in the area that is capable of flight is in use already. Start that bidding war with my tax money, why don’t you. (Before you say, “draft them into service, ” remember we’re talking about private transport. The military’s are already in use, so you’re talking about seizing private property. You first; please hand your car keys to HPD and tell them to use it however necessary to rescue people. (I won’t discuss the obvious problem with also conscripting pilots.) What? No takers? And I’d like to remind folks that it took time to get the airports back into operation; and some hangers were severely damaged. Never mind the fact that it is hugely slow and expensive to move anything by air that isn’t designed to be. It’s a “no other choice” scenario.
That strikes me as even more difficult.
So how about all you whiners who don’t know jack about large-scale rescue and recovery efforts just STFU and let the experts get on with their jobs?
Want to know more about Incident Control? I mean, the real stuff, not the carefully digested pap the media fills your mushy heads with, because they think you can’t handle hard facts?
Go here, for citizen/homeowner online training. It’s free.
Note that as a public works employee, I had to take the NIMS courses designed for government employees. Supervisors and managers, and Tier 1 personnel have to take the more advanced courses. You can probably get those too, although you might have to register somewhere. Look for IS-100, IS-700, then IS-200 and IS-800, then IS-300 & IS-400; there’s dozens of discipline-specific courses. Go here if you want to take these courses online for credit. Here’s background and an overview.
A sample of the entry-level “professional” courses:
IS-100 ICS-100 An Introduction to ICS for Federal Workers
IS-100 ICS-100 An Introduction to ICS for Law Enforcement Personnel
IS-100 ICS-100 An Introduction to ICS for Public Works Personnel
IS-100 ICS-100 An Introduction to ICS for Healthcare/Hospital Personnel
IS-100 ICS-100 An Introduction to ICS for Schools
Read from the above materials, and you’ll come to realize that disaster response isn’t a matter of “winging it.” It’s a matter of thorough pre-planning and training. Not that the press will ever bother to find out, or tell you if they do.
I might do another post on this later, but I need to complete one on evaluating hurricanes first.