In my last article entitled “Where is the ship?” I focused on natural disasters that affect Small Island Developing States in the Caribbean, and the similar dangers in Central America and the Southern USA. The timeframe related to the immediate aftermath of events and broken communications and access to widely dispersed pockets of need largely due to road and air inaccessibility.
I must admit that there are non-coastal events that also disrupt normality in continental areas that may not be near to the sea. These would include avalanches; river over-flow; ice storms; earthquakes; fires; volcanic eruption; and heat waves in temperate climates. Again, these are “Acts of God” and are fairly regular occurrences within recognizable climatic zones.
On the day of writing Brazil was in turmoil with baseball-sized hail stones.
There are, however, many threats that arise and may be attributed to human encroachment or disregard of prudent behaviour. Squatter/residential misuse of vulnerable areas of forests; rivers; watersheds; towns; cities; and other sensitive locations are man-induced perils. Wild fires, over-building losses of power and water, no alternative ways of cooling and cooking, trends of flooding, no escapes from high-rise buildings, and more are increasingly connected to human activities.
All of the above are threatened by lack of equipment; low response numbers; specifically untrained skills; no backup personnel; no consistency with rescue communications and control (fire equipment, ambulances, and police personnel) constitute clear and present dangers to leadership, chain of commands, and organization. For those Governments still using cash accounting (for largely political reasons) there is little room for sustainability, continuity, or maintenance.
However, a more serious situation for relief efforts arises from human beings’ inhumanity through political agendas; religious intolerance; racial biases; and sheer greed. Scarce or valuable resources such as water; oil; uranium; gold; diamonds; heavy metals; and other valuable minerals have been sources of much violence.
In these little considered man-made crises we need to pay much attention to details. In a recently published article/report by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) attention was drawn to some of these 2021-22 matters of concern as they affect relief efforts.
Article & Photo from: Public Opinion