The pictures and stories coming out of Texas are mind-boggling. The Hurricane Harvey disaster is still unfolding, and it will be some time before anyone can get a handle on the scope of the devastation. It’s a major catastrophe that will affect the region for years and may send reverberations around the country.
The loss of life and property, the lives upended – it just crushes your heart. But amid all the tragedy, we’re also seeing so much that is inspiring. Sometimes it seems to take extreme adversity to put a spotlight on the very best in human nature.
One report after another shows people going to heroic extremes to rescue others in distress. People wading through water to pull others to safety. Boat owners combing neighborhoods to get residents stuck in their homes.
In many cases, we’re watching professionals do the work they’ve trained for and that we rely on in times of crisis. I’m in awe of their tireless efforts.
In many other cases, it’s neighbors helping neighbors. Strangers helping strangers. People motivated by nothing more than their shared humanity.
One incident that vividly captured that sense of coming together: people forming a human chain across a flooded street to reach a man caught in his car. Locking hands and arms, they literally became joined for a common purpose.
Without losing sight of the immense misery, we can’t help but be uplifted by these scenes. They remind us of the goodwill we can find in most everyone around us.
The storm and flooding should also be a reminder to everyone that massive disasters can simply overwhelm the capacity of official emergency responders. You can’t assume you’ll immediately get help. Each of us needs to be prepared and have a plan for ourselves and our families – pets included! Experts recommend you have enough supplies on hand to get you by for at least three days.
Remember that all County employees are disaster service workers, meaning you could be called on to perform special duties in an emergency. The time when the public needs us most is not the time to be worrying about whether our own families are taken care of. Get those plans in place now.
Additionally, through the Advanced Recovery Initiative, the County pre-identifies and pre-trains certain employees so they’re ready to perform critical missions like work in shelters, assist 211 San Diego with providing disaster information to the public, and help communities recover at Local Assistance Centers. If you’re interested, email the Office of Emergency Services.
We’re heading into peak wildfire season. Last winter’s rains have left thick grasses across San Diego and beneath trees dried out by years of drought. It’s all a spark away from igniting. We live in earthquake country, and one could strike anytime. So we may not face Harvey-style flooding, but we have clear threats of our own and need to be prepared.
ReadySanDiego.org is your go-to resource. Go through the Family Disaster Plan and Personal Survival Guide, stock up on supplies, and get your emergency kit together. Information is one of your top survival tools. Register your cellphone for AlertSanDiego to get messages like evacuations notices for a specific address. That’s especially important if you’ve cut your home’s landline. Download the SDEmergency mobile app to get updates about emergency incidents or to do your planning on the go.
Encourage your relatives and friends to take all those steps as well. Working together to prepare will make it a lot easier to pull together in an emergency.
All the people in Harvey’s path face a long road to recovery. The unity we’ve seen in the initial response will be just as important in coping with the aftermath. But the resilience so dramatically on display now gives us hope and gives testament to the power of perseverance and shared effort.
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