United States Response to the Super Storm Sandy - Case Study Example

UNITED STATES RESPONSE TO THE SUPER STORM SANDY Name Institution Professor Course Date The purpose of this essay is to determine whether United States did mount an effective response to Super Storm Sandy. As a hurricane, as well as post-tropical cyclone, Sandy was responsible for 117 deaths in the case of the United States and 69 more in the contexts of Canada and the Caribbean. The Super Storm Sandy occurred on 22 October 2012. The death toll in the United States includes 34 in New Jersey 53 in New York State, 12 in Pennsylvania, six in West Virginia, one in Maryland, seven in diverse areas in the United States, and four in Connecticut. The Super Storm Sandy was a post-tropical cyclone, which swept through the Caribbean and up the East Coast of the United States in October of 2012. It is essential to note that the hurricane began as a tropical wave in the Caribbean prior to quickly turning into a tropical storm in approximately 6 hours. The Super Storm Sandy was upgraded to a hurricane after reaching the 74 mph winds (Redlener, 2013). According to the National Hurricane Centre, the tropical force winds extended 820 miles at their widest. The event led to approximately $62 billion in damage in the United States and about $315 million in the Caribbean. Hurricane Sandy comes out as the most expensive storm since Hurricane Katrina, which led to $128 billion in damage. According to the existing statistics, New York was the most severely impacted because of the damage to subways and roadway tunnels. In New York and New Jersey, the storm surges were approximately 14 ft above the average low tide. During the storm, approximately 7.5 million and above people were without power (Noyes, 2013). Following the occurrence of the event, the government sought to adopt and implement appropriate strategies with the intention of preventing or reducing the occurrence of future disasters from storms. This is through incorporation of electrical transformers in commercial buildings hauled to upper floors, integration of ability to the shutter critical tunnels, airports, and subways. In addressing the purpose of the study, it is critical to begin with assessment of the preparedness and response efforts by the federal and state governments leading up to the Hurricane Sandy. Preparedness and Response Efforts by Federal and State Governments leading up to Hurricane Sandy In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy pounded the east coast, thus severely influencing the densely populated areas with reference to New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut with diverse strong winds, heavy rains, and record-breaking storm surges. In the course of the natural disaster, millions of the citizens lost power, experienced poor transportation systems through flooding of the roads, and encountered destruction of homes and businesses forcing the individuals to pursue temporary shelters (Powell, Hanfling, & Gostin, 2012). Numerous individuals lost their lives. Similarly, many communities are still undergoing reconstruction because of the Hurricane Sandy. Learning from past challenges in preparing for, and providing relief efforts after, Hurricane Katrina, the federal government, under the leadership and management of Federal Emergency Management Agency and support from other departments, began to place staff and assets. These were elements in relation to preparedness to the predicted impact areas prior to the storm (Goldman, 2014). Prior to the day of the storm, the president of the United States, Obama, signed emergency declaration for Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey providing the perfect platform for FEMA to transfer resources directly to state, local, and tribal organizations with the intention of making preparations in advance of the storm. Moreover, the president signed additional emergency declarations for other states such as West Virginia and Delaware in the following days. Additionally, the president directed FEMA to develop the National Power Restoration Taskforce with the objective of minimizing the red tape, increasing coordination among the government agencies at all levels, and the private sector, as well as rapid restoration of fuel and power. These actions illustrate a marked change from the way authority focused on dealing with Hurricane Katrina. In this context, FEMA focused on adoption and implementation of a proactive rather than reactive approach in dealing with the natural disasters. This is because of the influence of the legislation approved by Congress with the intention of restructuring FEMA following the miscues of Hurricane Katrina, which allowed quicker access to federal resources, as well as increased communication and partnerships between the federal, state, and local agencies. Moreover, states began anticipating response, relief, and longer-term recovery requirements, leveraging their existing relationships with private sector, community-based, media, and other organizations towards communicating with residents and business-owners while calling in the necessary staff, first responders and other disaster relief workers. It is critical to note that the public-private partnerships were essential aspects to activate before the disaster struck (Neria & Shultz, 2012). These partnerships in association with volunteer organizations and disaster grants were aspects of immediate response, as well as longer-term recovery efforts in relation to the natural disasters. In the course of one year after the occurrence of the natural disaster, the government had provided over 230,000 individuals and businesses with assistance through various departments such as FEMA, Small Business Administration (SBA), and Department of Labour among others. It is also critical for the research to assess the influence of the Hurricane Sandy on the government’s disaster preparedness and management programs. Hurricane Sandy on Government’s Approach to Natural Disaster Preparedness and Management It is essential to note that the federal government took several significant steps in the months that followed Hurricane Sandy while concentrating on primarily on legislative reforms, innovations, and public-private partnerships. In January 2013, President Obama focused on signing two critical pieces of legislation, which were vital increasing the borrowing authority of FEMA by almost $10 billion as an emergency requirement. In addition, the approach was vital in enabling the agency to continue to pay flood insurance and other disaster related claims. The approach was ideal in promoting Federal support while working with state, local, and tribal communities. The government focused on development of a Task Force releasing Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Strategy with the intention of offering appropriate recommendations for the areas influenced by Hurricane Sandy to rebuild and better prepare for the future extreme weather events. Some of the recommendations include resilient rebuilding, ensuring regionally coordinated and resilient approaches to infrastructure investment. In addition, the government focused on providing families safe and affordable housing options and protections while supporting small businesses with the objective of revitalizing local economies. The recommendations also included handling of the insurance challenges, increased local government’s capacity to plan for long-term re-building and preparations for future disasters. The strategy also focused on assessing substantial opportunities to harden energy infrastructure with the intention of ensuring minimal power disruptions and fuel shortages, as well as effective ways of maintaining continuous cellular service. These recommendations promise to go a long way in addressing critical challenges as evident in the case of the Hurricane Sandy and other previous natural disasters. Similarly, the government sought to identify substantial mechanisms of improving energy resiliency to facilitate collaboration with the state of New Jersey and other entities to provide substantive power during a storm. It is critical to note that Connecticut was the first state to establish a microgrid program with the purpose of utilizing private-public partnerships while putting in place 800 megawatt installed capacity of microgrid and distributed generation systems by 2030. Similarly, New York City was a leader in its efforts to better plan for the implications from increased climatic events. This is through formation of the special initiative for rebuilding and resiliency in assessing the risks faced by the New York’s infrastructure, buildings, and communities from the implications of climate change in the medium (2020) and long-term (2060s). Similarly, the city focused on production of a strategy with the purpose of increasing the resiliency of the city. The initiatives also focus on incorporation of mechanisms with perfect platform to handle coastal protection, utilities, community preparedness and response, transportation, telecommunication, wastewater, and substantial plans for rebuilding of the communities, which were hard hit. The objective of rebuilding these areas is to increase their resiliency level, thus further protection to businesses and individuals during natural disasters. The government is also paying critical attention to the increasing of the resiliency of communities and infrastructure, as well as the need for increased investment by federal, state and local actors. These programs are essential in providing substantial platforms for the preparations and mitigations of the effects of climate change. Super Storm Sandy tested limits of diverse emergency planning and response capabilities of the United States. From this perspective, the natural disaster was vital in facilitating the opportunity for learning from the experience, which can enable the government agencies and communities they serve to prepare for and respond to the next major emergency event. Preparing to be disaster-ready The shifting climate patterns, as well as extreme weather events in the recent years tend to suggest that Sandy might just be a warning of things to come. This makes it critical for the federal, state, and local agencies and government departments to adopt and implement appropriate mechanisms with the intention of preparing for the natural disasters while concentrating of providing adequate information to the citizens for empowerment. It is critical to note that emergency management agencies to rely on ‘disaster-ready’ solutions for communicating with the citizens with objective of helping prepare for, respond to, and put communities back together after the occurrence of the natural disaster. Emergency management and response preparations should start with adoption and implementation of the plan in accordance with the experiences, as well as within the constraints of present resources. Federal, state, and local agencies should concentrate on identification of the protocols, individuals, and tool they hope will carry them through a worst-case scenario in relation to the natural disasters. In addition, planning should focus on integration of servers, applications, and systems to improve communications to help keep the agencies running during an incident while offering adequate assistance whenever necessary. Communication is also ideal in empowering the society members through substantial information concerning potential occurrence of natural disasters as the Hurricane Sandy. Emergency management should focus on ensuring that agencies are running. This is because of the influence of the agencies in offering security, assistance, and protection during disasters. For instance, during Hurricane Sandy, it was essential for the federal, state, and local agencies to maintain diverse day-to-day operations. Since infrastructure and physical facilities are rendered unusable, thousands of government workers were temporarily displaced from their usual offices. From this perspective, getting ready for the next emergency demand communication and collaboration with accountable resources focusing on aggregating and disseminating the knowledge that people need prior, during, and after the natural disaster. The occurrence of Super Storm Sandy was an illustration of the influence of a single weather event in affecting millions of people over thousands of miles. One of the few certainties federal, state, and local governments relates to depending on the extreme reoccurrence of adverse weather, natural disasters, and other emergency events. In spite of these improvements by the federal, state, and local governments to handle Hurricane Sandy, there were challenges in relation to the actions by the Red Cross in responding to the natural disaster. It is critical to note that the Red Cross struggled in efforts towards meeting the basic needs of Hurricane Sandy victims in relation to the early aftermath of the 2012 natural disaster in accordance with the investigative report by NPR and Pro-Publica. Red Cross was also concerned about its image relating to the public relations efforts interfered with the group’s ability in the course of providing disaster relief. From this perspective, Red Cross focused on diverting assets from the public relations purposes. For instance, 40 percent of the available trucks were assigned in serving as backdrops for the news conferences. Nevertheless, Red Cross is defending itself against the allegations, as well as its activities during Sandy and other recent hurricanes (Redlener, 2013). Red Cross focused on the provision of appropriate services and products with the intention of helping the victims of Hurricane Sandy overcome diverse challenges through volunteer means or approaches. It is critical to note that the government’s response to Hurricane Sandy began while the massive storm was still gaining strength in the Atlantic Ocean. At the time, the natural disaster made landfall along the East Coast, FEMA teams and resources were already in place with the intention of beginning to help millions of citizens that would encounter the immediate impact of the storm. The recovery and clean-up efforts intensified since then as federal agencies, local governments, first responders, and volunteers focused on collaborating to work together to facilitate effective and efficient recovery, rebuilding, and overcoming the challenge to come back stronger than before. The government focused on integration of the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force with the mandate to develop different recommendations to help Sandy-impacted regions rebuild in a way that will help them overcome these influences. In addition, the approach is vital in serving as an appropriate model for diverse communities across the United States. The government had numerous personnel working to support response operations inclusive of search and rescue, situational awareness, logistical, and communications support in the states affected by the storm. The local entities and organizations focused on moving from door-to-door in the hardest hit regions with the purpose of informing the disaster survivors about the available services and resources. The approach was also vital in enabling the government to father substantial situational awareness (Noyes, 2013). From the above discussion, it is essential to note that the government of the United States acted effectively and efficiently in responding to the Hurricane Sandy or the Super Storm Sandy. This is through adoption and implementation of a proactive approach in the management of the natural disaster or emergency event. It is critical to note that the adoption of mitigation approach is essential in the massive decrease of losses from the natural disasters or hazards. This is through reduction of vulnerability or reduction of the frequency, as well as magnitude of the causal factors. Reduction in the losses generates numerous benefits. The approach by FEMA was critical in reducing direct property damage with reference to the contents, buildings, bridges, and other relevant aspects. In addition, proactive approach was ideal in minimizing direct business interruption loss and environmental damage, as well as other nonmarket damage (Adam Rose et al., 2013). The approach was also critical for the government to offer quality information on the natural disaster, hence the opportunity for the United States’ government to empower the citizens in attempt to equip such entities with adequate information on how to behave during the disaster. Conclusively, the government was able to minimize the loss of lives of the citizens in the hardest-hit areas and regions through prior planning and distribution of resources in the specific outlets in the state and local government agencies. Similarly, the government was able to adopt and incorporate substantive programs and mechanisms to facilitate rebuilding of the regions to enable the affected entities to recover in the appropriate way possible. List of References Adam Rose et al, 2013, “Benefit-Cost Analysis of FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grants.” Natural Hazards Review, 97-101. Neria, Y., & Shultz, J. M. 2012, “Mental health effects of Hurricane Sandy: characteristics, potential aftermath, and response.” JAMA, 308(24), 2571-2572. Goldman, L. 2014, “Older Adults & Disasters: Findings from Hurricane Sandy”. In 142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15-November 19, 2014). APHA. Redlener, I. 2013, “Public Health Preparedness after Sandy.” In 141st APHA Annual Meeting (November 2-November 6, 2013). APHA. Noyes, R. L. 2013, “Home care emergency response: Hurricane Sandy lessons learned and actions taken.” Caring: National Association for Home Care magazine, 32(5), 10-14. Powell, T., Hanfling, D., & Gostin, L. O. 2012, “Emergency preparedness and public health: the lessons of Hurricane Sandy.” JAMA, 308(24), 2569-2570. Read More