Monday 11 September 2017

I have "terremoto" and

"hurac'an" in my work emails right now. I also have  "cicl'on" and "ouragan"and "orkaan" and more. You will need to pardon the proper use of "accents" here as I can't seem to get diacritical marks to come together on Blogger. 
It doesn't matter anyway. All those people who need to read those words with the proper markings are there or on their way or waiting to be able to go. They have their communication boards ready - just in case they are needed.  In most cases they won't be needed. People will speak Spanish or French or Dutch or English. They will be able to communicate with the local community. They know that some people will be so traumatised they can't stop talking - and that, for the same reason, others won't talk at all. 
There are injuries to deal with - but some of those injuries won't be visible. There is an awful lot of clearing up to do - but some people won't know how to begin. There is a lot of rebuilding to do - but some people won't know where to start. 
Aid work is complex. Yes, you can send the armed services in and order them around - but even that has problems. You can't order civilians around like that, especially traumatised and injured civilians.
I thought of all that again in the middle of the night when I was trying to sort out a problem. Someone who has never been on the ground in a disaster said, "Why can't you just get the people who are there to do it?"
My answer, and the answer of the engineer going in to assess the damage, was, "Because they can't. In the normal way they could but they are in shock. People in shock don't function as they normally would."
In a disaster people who have been through the earthquake or the flood or the fire or the landslide or something else may appear to be functioning normally but that isn't necessarily so. They can be so traumatised that they cannot make decisions - or they will make the wrong decision. People are angry because they are frightened. Tempers are short. 
Even the people at the top, the people whose job it is to deal with a national emergency, will have problems. The people who go in to help may feel overwhelmed too. It's not simple.
But, if you see people you think should be helping themselves and apparently not doing so, please be patient. Please understand that they aren't lazy and that they do want things to improve. It's just that they can't cope with the situation just yet. Most of them will come to it but it takes a little time. 
Until then they need help - all the positive and practical help they can get. 

3 comments:

Momkatz said...

Thank you, Cat. What a cogent explanation of why people need help in disasters.
USA Sister Cat

Helen Devries said...

Thank you...so clear an exposition of the problem.

Jodiebodie said...

It's a shame that these insights are not more widely appreciated. Thank you for highlighting them.