As of yesterday afternoon, the death toll from Hurricane “Sandy” stood at 43 in the United States and Canada, with the number seen to climb amid reports of people still missing. Power was switched off in New York, plunging much of the city that never sleeps into darkness. People woke up to flooded streets and an inundated subway.
It helped that the “Franken-storm” weakened as it made landfall. It also surely helped that US authorities started preparing for the worst several days before the hurricane struck, giving residents ample warning. The high death toll and the billions of dollars in property damage show that there is no foolproof protection from nature’s fury, but preparedness can minimize death and destruction.
Preparedness starts with accurate forecasting – of the speed and direction of a storm, the amount of rainfall expected, and the time it is expected to make landfall. Compared with earthquake and tsunami prediction, storm tracking is a more accurate science. Achieving this type of accuracy should be a priority in the Philippines, which is visited regularly by powerful typhoons, torrential monsoon rains and storm surges. Yet Filipinos continue to be surprised by rainfall, gales and flooding that are much worse than predicted.
Studies conducted in recent years have shown that Metro Manila, the nation’s most densely populated area, is ill-prepared for major disasters. The lack of preparedness was noted in, among other things, response to multiple fires and collapsed buildings during a strong earthquake. The studies also showed the inadequacy of emergency facilities to deal with power and water supply disruptions, and the absence of decent evacuation centers. The time to start addressing such inadequacies is not when disaster strikes, but right now.