Lessons from Sandy–Are We Listening?

I was on the phone with my son in New Jersey on Monday at the moment the roof of his home was lifted off by Sandy and he had to flee for his Life.

He left everything behind and sought safety as the water poured in from above.

Life is more important than stuff.

In the aftermath, I am surprised to see how many people have forgotten to express gratitude for what they have survived.

For example, I am intrigued and disappointed to see people in social media bash utilities like Jersey Central Power and Light and others, demanding that service be restored now or else.

Many of these people are in no imminent danger.  They are safely in their homes.  They don’t need power to pump out flooded homes.  They don’t need power to drive important medical equipment.

Compared to many people who are in danger or who have been made homeless, they don’t need anything at the moment.

They are, however, tired of the inconvenience.

Meanwhile people have died in this storm or have been wiped out.  Many are homeless or are days or weeks away from returning to what’s left of their homes.  A linesman in Ontario was electrocuted and killed repairing damage from Sandy.

The fine folks at all the utilities are doing their best to restore service as quickly and safely as possible.

The better question is “Did we do our best?" in preparation for the storm.

Are we doing our best now?

We were warned

The interesting thing is that with all of our ability to communicate and be informed, many chose to not take action despite being warned for days leading up to the event.

For as many of us who use smartphones daily for unimportant stuff, it turned out that the owners of the smartphones and other devices weren’t terribly smart at all.

While we are more intelligent collectively as a species than we ever have been in recorded history, I can’t say the same is true for many people as individuals.

Yes, it is true that for many in coastal areas or in known flood-prone areas, there is not much you can do but get out and say a prayer that what you leave behind will survive.

However, for many inland, being informed means being prepared, stocking up on food, water, fuel, sources of heat, sources of light and sources of electricity in the form of generators and the like.

And for some, this preparedness includes sources of self defense.

Emergency preparedness people tell us this all the time.

And few people listen and take action.

But man oh man, do they ever have the energy to slam the brave men and women who are out there rescuing people, cleaning up debris and doing their darndest (even putting their life on the line) to get the country back on its feet.

And instead of kissing the feet of those brave men and women, too many yell at them loudly and incessantly, claiming that their alleged incompetence and inability to deliver results when we demand them is simply not good enough.

Is this why brave men and women made (and make) the ultimate sacrifice in so many wars and in emergency responses and rescue services – to allow us to continue to be selfish, greedy and victims by our own hand?

I doubt it.

We had up to 7 days of warning to prepare.

And yes, people say that the hype over Hurricane Irene and such taught them that they could ignore this storm.

That’s an excuse – not a reason.

Here’s what frightens me.

Governments around the world, including the Canadian and US governments, are preparing for much larger disasters than Sandy.

These disasters may come in many forms. 

We have tasted natural disaster many times.

We have lived with the potential disaster of nuclear obliteration for decades.

Some people claim that disasters resulting from global warming will make Sandy seem like a breeze on a summer’s day in comparison.

Some nations are preparing for disasters that one would think only exist in the world of science fiction, including off-world threats.

Some believe that a cyber attack will derail us, creating confusion and devastation in transportation, energy production, communication, food and water distribution and perhaps even civil defense.

The good guys and the bad guys are planning for scenarios where, as great nations like the US are up to their eyeballs in dealing with something like Sandy, someone pushes “the button” and executes a cyber attack that turns everything off and leaves the nation totally defenseless.

Groups like the Department of Homeland Security and others are preparing for these scenarios and others – scenarios that would paralyze us with fear.

If one pays attention to the laws that are being passed, the scenarios that the military are rehearsing in the name of civil defense (not foreign wars) and the weapons that are being stockpiled for civil defense purposes, it is easy to see that the government is planning for something big.

Despite the conspiracy people who go crazy over this stuff, we need someone to prepare for such scenarios.  After all, we don’t seem capable or willing to do it ourselves.

The history of humanity teaches us that when it comes to preparedness, possibilities often turn into probabilities if we don’t address them or if we pretend that by not focusing on them that they will simply go away on their own.

When (not if) one those scenarios comes to pass, the people who actually have the energy to complain on Facebook, Twitter and the like will not be able to complain because the communication infrastructure will not be there to enable their griping.

It wouldn’t matter if the infrastructure was there anyway because most people will be so busy surviving that they won’t have time or energy to worry about complaining or reading other people’s complaints.

Using our energy appropriately

In storms like Sandy, once we realize that we have survived and are safe, we need to turn our energy and resources towards those who need help the most.

We need to lift up those who need to be lifted up.

We need to lift up those who sacrifice themselves or put their own lives on the line to lift others up.

And after we rebuild, which we always do, we need to ask ourselves one question.

What have I learned from this and how can I prepare myself and my family to deal with such events in a better way moving forward?

Because when the next one comes, and history teaches us that it will come, we need to do our best to be the strongest that we can be for ourselves, our families, our neighbours and our nation.

Failure to prepare may prove to be fatal …. for our ourselves, our families, our neighbours and our nation.

Instead of being the victim through failure to take action, let’s take control of our safety and our future and not rely on others to do it for us.

After all, it is possible that there may not be anyone out there who will be able to help us when the next event hits.

There is an old adage that “history teaches us that history teaches us nothing”.

Maybe it should be reworded along the lines of:

History always teaches us many things of great value.

The question is whether the students are listening, learning and applying the knowledge.

Let’s remember that rebuilding is not complete until the learning lessons have been acknowledged and applied.

Otherwise we haven’t learned anything at all.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

Addendum: November 1, 2012

My blog doesn’t show comments by default.  However, if one clicks on the comments link below, one will see an example of how such events can bring out the worst as well as the best in humanity.

My assertion that we need to take more responsibility for our safety and our future produced a death threat from someone who thought he was being anonymous.

As long as we have a sense of entitlement that we as individuals have no responsibility in taking care of ourselves (and thus our world), our world will continue to get more complex and more difficult.

A complex world where only the fittest will survive.

Just as Darwin suggested.

Addendum 2: November 1, 2012

Let’s not forget that preparedness not only means being ready ourselves but calling on other organizations to be ready also.

Personal responsibility and public accountability go hand-in-hand.

Otherwise we end up experiencing violence because of gas shortages, disappointment in groups like the Red Cross and other situations.

In the grand scheme of what governments are preparing for, Sandy may prove to be insignificant in impact.

Let’s make sure that we strive to be better prepared the next time.

And that only happens when we hold everyone, including ourselves, responsible for being better prepared.