What went wrong?

Disaster Prevention and Management

ISSN: 0965-3562

Article publication date: 27 April 2010

544

Citation

Wilson, H.C. (2010), "What went wrong?", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 19 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2010.07319baa.001

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited


What went wrong?

Article Type: Editorial From: Disaster Prevention and Management, Volume 19, Issue 2

After all the millennia in which man has survived disastrous occurrence after disastrous occurrence we still have not managed to put into practice the simple system of when a major disaster such as the earthquake in Haiti occurs the primary requirements of the survivors – medical help, food, water, and shelter – are met swiftly and effectively.

This event has been a media-feeding frenzy fuelled by the simple facts that there appeared, on the surface, to be a complete lack of co-ordination of the relief effort.

The people of Haiti had very little in the way of modern amenities prior to the earthquake with a shortage of power, water and sanitation facilities and food, and a rudimentary medical system being the norm. The earthquake took all of those away from them and left them with nothing, but this is not abnormal in an earthquake-devastated zone. Roads, ports and airports are always severely affected by earthquakes – that is just the nature of the beast. Haiti was fortunate in that the damage to the airport was minimal, but that proved not to be a redeeming feature as the remaining staff were overwhelmed by the influx of aircraft bringing in relief supplies. They lacked the facilities of a modern airport infrastructure in that they had insufficient heavy mechanized equipment capable of unloading the aircraft quickly to ensure an efficient and fast turn-around of the aircraft. The worst feature was that they failed to get the prioritization of the influx of aircraft right with examples of in-coming flights of medical supplies and personnel being diverted to the Dominican Republic for onward transportation by road, adding many hours before the relief teams could reach the injured.

Such a disastrous event will attract media attention worldwide – that is inevitable and, in a way, desirable, as such coverage generates many millions of dollars in public donations, but what has happened to the pooling system that is meant to operate in such events? NewsWatch, a sub-programme of the BBC’s Breakfast Programme in the UK, questioned the Head of News Reporting on the need for over 20 BBC personnel, plus equipment, being sent out to cover the event for the BBC. This amounted to over three tonnes in weight. Wouldn’t three tonnes of medical supplies have been a better and more useful delivery on that aircraft? I have no idea how many other news-broadcasters are covering the disaster, but 100 would not surprise me. Surely the news broadcasters could have got together and pooled the coverage just as effectively with fewer personnel on the ground and filled the empty space on the aircraft with intravenous fluids, stretchers, medical personnel etc.? A survivor with crush injuries does not need a camera stuck in their face but does need an intravenous drip in their arm, or painkillers, or antibiotics if they are to survive.

Earthquakes are not selective in what damage they cause and in the case of Haiti Government buildings these do seem to have taken a heavy toll, rendering government employees virtually sterile with no communications systems, lack of leadership, lack of records, etc.

Much attention in the UK media has been on the plight of young children orphaned by the earthquake and it is heart-wrenching coverage and that has helped to create an upsurge in the number of requests for a rapid adoption procedure, but prior to the earthquake Haiti had over 300,000 children available for adoption, and obviously that number will have increased dramatically in light of this tragic event. With the loss of the government buildings and their records and personnel this problem will intensify, but it is to be hoped that the nation will resist the temptation to remove large numbers of children permanently from the country as with the chaos left in the wake of the event families have lost contact with one another and whether a child is simply separated from their family or is truly an orphan has to be determined, plus the normal adoption screening process has to be applied. The children of Haiti are the future of that nation.

It is going to take tens of years to put Haiti back on to its feet and that is not just about money but it is mainly about expertise in re-building the country’s infrastructure in such a way that, if such an event should re-occur, then the important facilities for life continuation are not all lost at the same time. At the very least important aspects of communication, hospitals, government buildings, school, shopping malls, ports, and airports, etc. have to remain more or less intact.

The population of Haiti have been to hell and back and it is to be hoped that, with judicious help from the richer nations, they can re-build their nation into the paradise they deserve, but it will take time and dedication.

H.C. Wilson

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