Haiti, and disasters in general

[Seth Sicroff]

This might be a good opportunity to focus again on the issues of disaster management and mitigation. What lessons are we learning from Haiti? Here are a few thoughts:

1) As always, the big disasters are multi-stage, and are compounded by supply and access issues -- not just physical, but also bureaucratic. The Domenican border has been a serious bottleneck. Even within the same country, there are jurisdictional problems -- remember the cops holding down the bridge so that Katrina refugees couldn't spill over into tonier neighborhoods? Can such issues be foreseen and mitigated at the Nepal-Indian border? 

2) The government in Haiti has been virtually non-existent, largely because the government building were destroyed and there is no place for people to go to work. What if there were a stockpile of laptops ready to be parachuted in, all set with GoToMyPC installed so that they could communicate from anywhere? And why not have one or more communications satellites ready to be navigated into place, so they could take up the connectivity slack?

3) The social networks now have a key role to play, yet the infrastructure is not in place. The Red Cross put up a missing-persons site

http://www.familylinks.icrc.org/WFL_HTI.NSF/DocIndex/locate_eng?opendocument

and there are other resources, but it seems that the resources could be stabilized by a commercial application. For instance, why not a Web site where you could list people you are trying to get in touch with? If that gained critical mass, it would be more efficient than other Internet searches and could be ready to handle crisis situations.

4) I was relieved to see that looting did not immediately break out (which would have confirmed a strong stereotype about African-Americans in particular and blacks in general), but it has occurred more widely as needs become more dire. Shouldn't there be an international law to the effect that in wide-scale emergencies people should be free to help themselves to whatever they can salvage without the stigma of criminality? This is a tricky issue, as there may be home-owners and proprietors in a position to defend their personal property. But how can it be expected that people will starve and go without clothes and shelter when large stores are wrecked and all the goods will be thrown away or written off anyway? 

5) One innovation that has made a substantial impact is text-donations. There are apparently millions of people willing to give not only to Obama's campaign but to other causes. What does it take to set up such a line? Could we use one for smaller causes....such as funding the Hillary Medal? 

6) Tourism has become an important factor in Haiti-aid: Carnival Cruiselines, the largest investor in a country that has done everything possible to justify investo-phobia, continues to bring boatloads of merry-makers to the north side of the island -- along with palettes of donated goods. If this strikes you as gross, you should listen to the NPR interview this morning:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122716579  I recall that backpacker tourism rebounded early in Lijiang (Yunnan, China) after the 1996 earthquake. Maybe we should give some thought as to how tourism can best be harnessed in diverse destinations that are prospective disaster sites. 

We all know that the Himalayas are overdue for a Big One. KP Mainali and I have proposed setting up a Disaster Management University in Kathmandu (optimally, in the liberated royal palace). In the shorter term, I hope that world disaster experts are readying  for a post-mortem on the Haiti event. The fact that all the data is not in should not deter us from thinking about the next Big One. This much is clear: the big players don't have all the answers.

Seth Sicroff

Other ideas? I hope the planners in places like Nepal are taking a close look at all aspects of this disaster.