New Orleans and Disaster Recovery

Dear Bazz

I read that letter from your friend with interest about the New Orleans flood. Take it from me, Aussies aren’t as big bold and brave as we try to make out we are. I’ve seen Australians threaten State Emergency Service volunteers with knives because they aren’t getting the assistance they want straight away, and I’ve seen people from Sydney traumatised and panic stricken by what was essentially a small windstorm that blew their trees down over their car. And when the roof of the house comes off, people aren’t usually in a fit state to converse coherently. A disaster is a disaster, and it takes a certain kind of person with good training and discipline to take control in such chaos.

I agree that the N.O. Stadium wasn’t policed properly, and the N.O. police failed, and showed cowardice to the people of their city. However, I don’t think we should forget that even Australians are capable of the worst kind of behaviour in large stressed environments. I do not think we are immune.

Perhaps the SES would have done a better job of evacuating the people than the Louisiana National Guard. For a start the SES has the legislative authority to FORCE people to evacuate with the back up of the police if a state of emergency is declared, and at first the National Guard couldn’t force people. The SES has no guns, nor do we want them, and we get 99% of people to obey the law and do the wisest safest thing. And usually we have no guns pointed back at us, and that is a major difference between NSW and Louisiana. Even if the Australian Army was used to evacuate civilians, they would leave the guns in the armoury, to reason with and cajole the residents.

With my hindsight, I would have transported the poor and disabled out. But think about this, how many disabled and infirm in a city the size of N.O. are there, and how many properly equipped vehicles are available? This would involve massive amounts of coordination time. In our situation is there a central database of all disabled people, their location and needs both medical and physical, that the SES can access, how much argy bargy do you think we would have to have with Centrelink to get that kind of information? Or you would have to do it the hard way and ring every nursing home in the district and get stats and advice. The other thing is, where do you get a 1000 buses at the drop of a hat without commandeering them, forcibly, and taking them away from their everyday but none the less important work? Another huge coordination task. With the NSW Department of Community services current attitude to emergency management, would you like to rely on DOCS to arrange your emergency housing? That is DOCS legislated role in a time of Crisis. Did they have similar problems in N.O.?


If a cyclone or tsunami struck Wollongong there would be every single available SES unit from across the state in Wollongong within at least 14 hours (about as long as it takes to drive from Broken Hill to the Gong), however you would have to take into account that if a large storm or flash flood took out the Gong, it would take out cell phones, landlines, the internet, the power, the roads, and a great number of critical facilities like police stations and SES HQ’s. Satellite phones are dependant on atmospheric conditions at times, and if you could get through, you would most likely find that you would have the channels jammed. The same goes for our wonderful GRN radios, even in this digital age, it is still quite possible to jam the radios with traffic (which is what happens when the proverbial hits the fan in large lumps), and cause the computer systems to go into meltdown.

Of course the SES would be capably assisted by the Rural Fire Service, and they would do what ever they could to help. And we could be assured that other SES units from other states, especially Vic, and QLD would come to our aid. But this would require state to state negotiations, and that takes a little bit of time. Federal assistance in terms of money would have to be negotiated, and military assistance would be forthcoming IF the federal government thought it feasible to take them away from defence duties. With so many of our armed forces deployed overseas, I can assure you that the defence presence would be light.

I don’t think our police are cowards, and I believe they would turn up for work, though it would be too much for some, and they would turn their backs. You would have to mobilise police from across the state, as well as every available ambulance and NSW Fire Brigade. However, we also need our police, fire and ambulance for routine emergencies in our other cities, not just the disaster affected city. Then there is the question where and how do we house all these extra service people? That is a separate question apart from where we house the refugees.

Yes there would be looting, Australians DO loot Australians; I have seen it happen at bushfires. We have also had instances of people dressing up in orange overalls pretending to be SES and looting the house. That’s why SES volunteers always carry and show official Photo SES ID.

The SES has arrangements with large supermarkets and food and beverage distributors, that when disaster strikes we can get truckloads and truckloads of food and water to any place in the state. But think about this, what happens when the roads are impassable because they are washed away? Can you get the trucks in then? There are only a certain number of 4WD’s and it takes time to go cross country, and you have to deal with creeks. The alternative is airdrops, but you have to airdrop at certain predetermined points in order to facilitate distribution of the resources.

First all the SES units have to go in and set up a command, and as I have indicated, getting in can be a trouble physically. Then we have to assess the situation, by recon aircraft and physical travel, and that information has to get back to a central command. Then we start deploying our response. I don’t think the National Guard could do much different.

Sure the Nat. Guard had warning of the cyclone, and could make educated guesses and approximations, but the Emergency manager in that situation does not know what has happened UNTIL it has happened. Emergency managers aren’t psychic, they have statistics and physical data by which they can make an approximate deliberation, but that is all. Will the levees break… plan for that, Wont the levees break…. then plan for that as well. 200 houses flooded or 40000 houses flooded? How far is the sea expected to rise?

The SES and RFS (CFA) have an advantage over the National Guard, although we do mostly the same civil defence duties. Our advantage is that we are volunteers. We don’t get paid for our work. Though a lot of people seem to think we do, we don’t. What the advantage is when an ordinary citizen realises that this emergency work is being done by volunteers, just ordinary people like him or her with a bit of training and discipline, they get inspired, and think “I can help too”. Aussies dig deep for their own, and to be fair so did the Yanks for their own, and we both as nations give generously to overseas disasters.

Another thing to add is that the SES would be retrieving the dead, not some contractors who want to make a profit out of misery.

When I do my SES work, especially out in the country, I often rely on the CWA or church ladies to come up with the goods for lunch, brekky and dinner. The RFS relies on other people to help them fight the bushfires as well. The churches often do great work with food, and accommodation. I think it’s great that every one pitches in, in Australia in times of crisis, and that we have a strong volunteer ethic, but I don’t think we should be too hard on the yanks.

Sure the Yanks have that stupid gun culture that see people shooting at the National Guard, but that is just the way have decided to structure their society, along with paid civil defence workers. However, if the disaster happened to be one of our cities, we would be feeling the pain probably as much as them, only in different ways, and there certainly would be questions about our response as well.

So Bazz, you probably already know that I am an SES deputy controller and officer, but I state it, if you would like to publish this letter on your site. I’ve had several years experience in emergency management in that role. I don’t think we should be too harsh on the Americans, they are in pain, they are grieving, a beautiful vibrant city has been trashed, so have a little sympathy and empathy. Just remember, we aren’t perfect, far from it, and we are just as human as they are.

Stuart