WHEN government tells you to evacuate before a typhoon, the instruction is taken as a suggestion. “Mandatory evacuation” was unheard of until recently when Americans prepared for Hurricane Irma.
Up to six million Americans in Florida state were told to leave the state or move to a hurricane shelter if they were to stay alive. Hurricane Irma has been in the news because of its size and strength. It is expected to hit Florida Saturday night (Sunday morning in the Philippines) with winds reaching 300 kilometers per hour. Typhoon Yolanda, when it hit Eastern Visayas in 2013, had as its highest wind speed 315 kilometers per hour.
What was different for me in the preparations for Irma was the notice given to Florida residents several days before Irma was set to hit land. Florida people had at least five days to prepare or move out and, when it became clear this was going to be a deadly hurricane, more than a day to evacuate. Before Yolanda hit the Philippines, residents were told days before to seek shelter or high ground but they were not warned of the storm surge that overtook homes and buildings, including concrete structures that served as shelter to many.
The warnings given to Florida residents were that the hurricane would bring massive walls of waves and strong, deadly winds that moving away was the wise thing to do.
There were holdouts who refused to evacuate because, they said, they survived a past hurricane or had nowhere to go. This was the same kind of thinking Eastern Visayas people had before Yolanda hit. Some of them didn’t make it when walls of water crushed them and their flimsy structures.
The mandatory evacuation ordered by the Florida government meant residents had to move or they placed their lives at risk. “If you’re in an evacuation zone, you’ve got to get out,” Florida Governor Rick Scott said on the Good Morning America television program Friday. “You can’t wait.”
Government personnel went house to house to tell residents to evacuate, or, if they chose to stay, to make sure they have supplies for the next three to five days. Those who took government’s advice were brought by government vehicles to shelters. The evacuation process was organized at this point. Proof of the effectiveness of these actions would be after the incident, if there are casualties or fatalities.
Evacuation is part of disaster preparedness even in the Philippines, the differences lie in the seriousness of the order, number of those who heed the call and the shelters organized.
As to earmarking funds for the emergency, the United States government was reported to have set aside billions of dollars even before the hurricane entered Florida. The fund availability made it possible to put into effect programs. Rescue and rehabilitation of property are other aspects to be considered.
The ways Florida prepared for Hurricane Irma highlight the others’ inadequate calamity preparedness. Measures to address the threat of Irma presented examples of what steps to take and how to do it right.