China was quite shocked by the scale of tolls caused by the flooding of a 6-hour heavy rain this summer. The government was severely blamed for slow responses to the disaster, inadequate rescue efforts and unnecessary and detrimental censorship of important disaster information.
The loss caused by Sandy is much much more significant on many levels. Just like how divided this nation is at the presidential election, Americans also have quite different, if not totally opposite, opinions about the emergency responses and disaster relief efforts made by current political leaders. However, living in a relatively safe region in New York City (very fortunate about this), as a witness to the many problems caused by the hurricane and community member receiving many messages from respective organizations in regard of how the society works together for disaster relief, I think how New York City and the US approached to the hurricane showed strongly that this country may face a very challenging new era in terms of government structure, this country and the people here are teaching the world about some rudimentary elements a functioning nation should have.
Below I will list some sources/ types of messages which in my view reflects the features of a functioning nation (I will keep running this list through this very prolonged recovery period, and will add cases for comparison purposes from other countries):
1. Before the hurricane:
Mayors speeches and calling for evacuation Emergency preparation alert text messages from Columbia University
2. During the hurricane:
24/7 broadcasting about the hurricane and its effects on TV Emails from schools about safety Emails/Notices from government/schools about road/subway shut-down, class cancellation
Text messages/emails from energy companies about potential power cuts and how to respond
3. Day 1 after the hurricane:
Emails from banks/credit cards about fee waivers, considerable to hurricane affected regions
Updates from university, graduate school, departments, student senate, different officers, about class cancellation, safe tips, food/water/clothes distribution, volunteering opportunities
Updates about public transit status from various sources
Updated maps about subway system recovery on mta.info
Shopping sites (Amazon, Google Offers), social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) providing links for donations
Alumni clubs (Columbia Club, Harvard Club, etc.) updates about limited services, and providing free hot showers for members Sport clubs and other business providing benefits for free such as showers & towels.
4. Day 2 after the hurricane:
All above from 3, as well as newest updates about governments' detailed plans for volunteer opportunities for projects such as checking out broken trees, dangerous road crossings, setting up yellow belt to passengers, rescue center, etc.
5. Day 3 to Day 8:
News reports started to cover the election, while still enough coverage on progress, issues, concerns about the rescue and relief actions.
Updates on gas location and fuel availability: http://
6. Day 9, Nov 7th, 2012, at the time of this article being posted:
Several interesting things to note about some messages from authoritative sources such as the public security department of Columbia University.
-Rumor Control Center: http://www.fema.gov/hurricane-sandy-rumor-control
-FEMA's additional rental program for hurricane victims (I checked the sites and housing availability out of curiosity, checked several locations which rent range I am familiar with, the apartments with 2-4 bedrooms are from $0 to $200 a month, for 12 months sublease, versus a typical $2000-$4000/month market rental rate)
7. From before, through and after the hurricane and now another attack on the region from the Nor'easter, these organizations that I subscribed newsletters to also shared messages:
- Metropolitan Museum, Brooklyn Museum: about event cancellations, how some staff have been staying on site to make sure of things alright without going home for more than a week, and sympathies to members affected.
- CUCSSA/ CUAsia: sympathizing words
- Meditation Group at TC: Santra meditation sessions held over the phone through and after the hurricane to bring some peace to the practioners
- Movie theaters such as AMC: updates on website about partial service suspension
- Message board cross the college: people posting for car-pools, etc.
What I have done to be supportive to my communities?
- Provided shelters to two families of friends
- Packing up stuff for donation!
- Keeping this note, hopefully worth sharing for better pre-disaster preparation and relief in the future.
[2:51pm, Nov 7th, 2012: I will keep adding links to this post as my archive of a hurricane witness. ]
