Message from Jim
With condolences being sent from all corners of the world, including Queen Elizabeth II and Pope Francis, this month’s message comes rather easy.
Please extend your thoughts, prayers, and donations to the victims of Hurricane Harvey!
Former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director, Michael Brown, has stated that damages from Harvey will surely be worse than Hurricane Katrina, the devastating storm of 2005, due to the greater number of people and businesses impacted. The governor of Texas is estimating cost of damage between $150-180 billion, but it is still uncertain at this time how much Congress will approve for immediate relief. Adding to the hardship, Harvey coincidentally made landfall only ten days after President Trump rescinded Executive Order 13960, which was signed by President Obama in 2015, to improve the resilience of communities and Federal assets and protect against the impacts of flooding, which are anticipated to increase over time due to the effects of climate change and other threats such as minimal zoning, filling of wetlands, and urban flooding, all of which are prevalent in Harris County, Texas. (See articles below for more information on the appeal of the Executive Order.)
Every time a large-scale disaster hits and response and recovery are underway, I can’t help but think of the first two phases of emergency management: preparedness and mitigation, and how much less the impact could have been had better planning and stronger mitigation strategies been in place. Studies have claimed that for every $1 spent on mitigation, $4 on post-disaster recovery can be saved. Regardless of what you believe the cause to be, not preparing for the effects of climate change will always keep us in a costly response/recovery cycle.
It is difficult to overlook the “Butterfly Effect”, a concept coined by Edward Lorenz, an MIT meteorologist in the early 1960s, since it can be applied in all parts of our lives. The “Butterfly Effect” presents the idea that small causes or decisions can have much larger effects into the future, even though much time may need to pass. The impacts of Harvey and other storms would be much less if our decision-making and planning is done with vision.
Help if you can!
