People should prepare for the unexpected when it comes to natural disasters, a panel of speakers said Monday.
About 15 graduates attended a panel discussion titled “Lessons From Hurricane Katrina: Improving Interorganizational Communication through Infrastructure,” which discussed how to address local and national emergency management in times of crisis.
Edward Fratto, the Executive Director of the Northeast States Emergency Consortium, briefed the group on several past disasters and stressed the importance of having a mitigation plan in place.
“Pretty much most natural disasters can affect us here in the Northeast,” he said.
Though most people may not link natural disasters like tornados to the Northeast, they have happened and can happen again, he said.
Fratto warned that as evidence of global warning becomes clearer, disasters that seemed improbable will become more frequent.
Kevin Meril, the mitigation division director in Federal Emergency Management Agency Region I, spoke of how effective preventive measures can be in not only reducing damage to the property, but can also save the government billions of dollars.
“For every one dollar spent in emergency mitigation, four dollars of damage is prevented,” he said.
In some cases, when there are homes that are prone to damage and are constantly having to be fixed after flooding and other natural disasters at the expense of the government, buying the property from the homeowner can save money.
One of the main problems with implementing these plans is that state governments aren’t making the effort to make the plans, Meril said.
“The money is out there, but they are choosing not to use it,” he said.
However, he said, it is not as important for the states to have the same plan as it is for them to have a plan at all.
Meril compared the “language” of these plans to the relationship between the Mac and the PC.
The language of the two computers was once very different, but now they are merging to make communication easier, he said.
Fratto ended the panel discussion by quoting John Lennon, who said “life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans,” to emphasize the importance of being prepared for any and every type of natural disaster.
Attendee and graduate student Yaylagul Ceran said she attended for her class.
“[I] liked that the second speaker answered questions about urban disasters and gave examples of implementation,” she said.
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