I have been unable to news coverage of the wildfires in Maui and the devastation they have caused. Disasters like this are “made for news” events. Stories of tragedy, rescues, public safety failures, finger pointing and opinions will dominate the news for at least a few days – until the next new tragedy takes over the spotlight.
One raw video caught my attention. It was of people who jumped into the ocean to survive. They are standing in waist deep water. The smoke is thick and billowing, the fire is raging on the shoreline, and you can’t tell if it is day or night.
Except for noise from the wind, a lone siren on shore and wished conversations, it is eerily quiet.Most people are not talking, only staring in stunned silence at the fire onshore.
People are huddled in small groups wearing their clothes. They are holding makeshift face masks made from torn t-shirts as they watched the buildings on the shoreline engulfed in flames and impenetrable black plumes of smoke. In the video you can hear the roar of the wind from the flames and you catch pieces of conversations from people in the water.
“Rinse the mask and put it over your face again,” says a man.
“Oh my god, I think that’s my building that just caught fire…my car is there,” says a women wearing a backpack.
After 5 hours, the people make their way back onshore. There is a lone rescue worker directing them somewhere. Otherwise it is like a charred ghost town. Power is out. Cars are burnt. Buildings are obliterated. Everything is covered in black ash and soot.
I have never been caught in a wildfire, but I did live through several hurricane emergencies when I lived in Florida. One was a nuisance. The other made for pretty rough for living for us for weeks, but it’s not comparable to what’s happened in Maui.
Except it was in some ways. Because it seems to me that natural disasters often share some commonalities:
- It looks like a bomb went off. Hurricanes, floods, fires, tsunamis, earthquakes, explosions all obliterate structures and landscapes that we see everyday and never think could be gone. Buildings, trees, roads, landscapes, cars, stadiums, boulders, mountains. It is unbelievable when you first see it.
- You will be on your own. Because these disasters effect a huge swath of people, there are never enough emergency responders, police, rescuers and recovery personnel. There can’t be. During the event, you will be making decisions that will make the difference in surviving or not. (eg. the people who jumped in the ocean).
- Rescues will be limited. How could it be otherwise? Roads are destroyed. Personnel can’t even reach victims. Communications are out. Phone service is out. Power is down.
- Immediate Aid will be insufficient and delayed. Despite big budgets, multiple organizations, volunteers and paid emergency personnel, it will take at least several days before the most basic aid arrives – water, temporary shelter, food and medical service.
- It will be a f***ing shitshow for a long time. I personally had a decent interaction with FEMA when we needed temporary shelter. I’ve admired the Red Cross for what they do after disasters. I’ve seen volunteer organizations like the Cajun Navy bypass bureaucratic delays to help people in need. The Coast Guard and National Guard are amazing. Local police, EMTs and firefighters really step up. The power companies mobilize convoys of repairmen to descend on the area to restore power. But none of this happens as quickly as you will want it to happen.
There’s already been a lot of finger pointing, blame casting and hand wringing about the Maui wildfire disaster. There will be a lot more to come.
What I’ve learned is that we cannot prevent natural disasters. We can anticipate them, sometimes. We can prepare a bit in advance to survive them.
My personal approach is to maintain the following:
- No less than 3/4 full gas tank
- 3 days of food that doesn’t need to be cooked
- 15 gallons of water
- A month’s supply of medicine
- A month’s supply of dog food
- Clothing and blankets to handle temps ranging from 0 degrees to 100 degrees.
- Basic tools – knife, rope, pry bars, saws
- Fully charged batteries and several light sources (headlamp, flashlights, candles, solar lamps)
- Decent first aid kit
- A gun and ammunition
- Some cash
That’s enough to get me through at least a week. And enough that I can help my neighbors around me. If I have advance notice, I’ll plan out escape routes, evacuation options and discuss these with my neighbors and friends.
But there’s not always advance notice. Plans can go to sh!t really quickly.
I don’t think anyone can be prepared for every possibility – especially not the government. So I don’t count on them. Nor do I blame them when a natural disaster hits that they cannot prevent and cannot make everyone recover from quickly.
Neither should you.