One of the single most crippling issues during Hurricane Katrina was the ageless question, “who’s in charge?” During Hurricane Katrina the federal government was not in charge. Governors Barbour, Riley and Blanco were in charge and the federal government was there as a supplement to the efforts of those three. Unfortunately Louisiana was wracked with political infighting and a Mayor who fought with the Governor. But Haiti is worse. No functioning government exists in Haiti, and such a power/political vacuum is instantly filled, rightly so, by the United States of America. Appointing both a civilian and military official to be “in charge” is smart and will be effective if both of these men recognize the respective roles each of their teams bring to the response and recovery efforts.
We must remember that the quickest of response teams are limited by factors over which they have no control: non-functioning airports, destroyed runways, emasculated infrastructure, and security problems. All were present (and to some extent will remain present for the foreseeable future) in Haiti and will continue to hamper response efforts. When I see a television anchor talking in front of starving, suffering people and asking, “where’s the aid?” I simply want to scream at the television and say, put down the microphone, go back to the airport, and watch the responders. Only then will you understand why, in such a catastrophe, it takes time to move material, supplies and personnel. That is a fact of life that we don’t seem willing to internalize. And in a catastrophe of this size (geographically, destructively, socially and politically) responders must wade through all of those issues to reach the people in need.
The Urban Search & Rescue Teams (USAR) were first in country after getting clearance they could actually land, deploy their equipment and operate safely (you do not want them to become victims themselves). The American USAR teams are the best and they did – and are – doing their jobs heroically.
Human physiology and mental stress, the dogs’ physical capacity, and the operating environment all limit response efforts. Yet the responders and their dogs strive to stretch those limits daily – and the media should recognize that. We should remember that while those teams are deployed, Yellowstone continues to shake and shimmer with swarms of earthquakes. America will always respond to foreign disasters such as Haiti. However, we must never take our eye off those incidents that can occur at anytime, anywhere in our own country.
Reports I have read and people I have spoken to in-country indicate that communications remain an issue. Satellite communication lines are sometimes jammed. This points out the need for additional capacity in all types of communications worldwide. More importantly, we must continue to watch the lines of communication between those who have boots on the ground and those back inside the beltway. Policy makers should pay attention to those in-country. Those in the field know best the needs, and those needs should only be balanced by the geopolitical and diplomatic concerns of those back home after fully understanding the ground situation.
Elected officials, emergency response experts, disaster planning specialists from those affected by the San Andreas fault, the New Madrid fault, and those from the National Earthquake consortium should, at the earliest possible moment where they will not detract from response and recovery efforts, travel to and embed themselves to watch what works and doesn’t work in Haiti. We can learn so much from this experience. We must not waste this opportunity to learn what works and doesn’t work in our response capacity.
The Obama Administration should receive kudos for responding quickly and efficiently. Those on both sides of the political spectrum should remember that every disaster involves politics. When you learn to manage the expectations, the political and media issues, you can succeed for the disaster victims, and you can succeed politically, too. To say that politics doesn’t enter into a disaster response is naïve. Ignoring politics as one of the many facets of disasters that must be managed is dangerous, even to the response itself. Manage the response and recovery first, the media second, and the politics will handle itself.
Finally, this disaster must teach us the need for catastrophic disaster planning. Our great nation faces similar earthquakes, tsunamis, devastating hurricanes, widespread flooding and other natural disasters. Without catastrophic disaster planning we are certain to face a fumbled response in the future. Elected officials must learn from this catastrophe, too.
