The hurricane Dorian which affected the Bahamas left people destitute. The 165 mph maximum sustained winds were reported down from 185 mph earlier. The government aids and international support boosted the survival rates.
Many who survived this storm are conscious of the damage on the infrastructures and homes which is shattering and emotional for them. Mandatory evacuation and the rescue operations were underway in some parts of Florida.
Dorian ripped off the roofs from people’s head; electrical wires tore down as people hastened for shelters to the schools and churches. Although the government has made many rescue operations, but during such emergency evacuations many deaths can be prevented, as Daniel Aldrich, a professor at Northeastern University examines in his latest research on the connection between social ties and people who responded to the hurricane evacuations. They can be anyone close, like neighbours, friends, family, and relatives who can make changes in between life and death during an emergency evacuation.
There are some people who are in penury and have insufficient resources that include poor people who reside in unfortified areas like low mortel houses. While wealthier communities have high-rise buildings that are out of any disaster’s harm.
These poverty-stricken people require more government assistance and recognition by allocating more resources to these communities. So that these individuals can obtain them assistance from social individuals and from social organisation, from police and from government officials to scrutinised them on a regular basis.
Daniel Aldrich says, “Moving people back away from areas that are definitely more vulnerable would be one easy way as a society-hard for those communities, but easy for society-to reduce our grief and reduce our costs.”
Daniel himself is not unknown to disasters. He moved to New Orleans in July of 2005, a mere six weeks before hurricane Katrina hit the city with his wife and two children. He initially resisted evacuation orders, and then they heeded instructions of neighbours’ and left. Within one or half-day later, he ended up learning that their house was the gone, the neighbourhood was gone, and his job was gone.
This ascertained him the significance of these social ties in the face of crisis and emphasised the need to build social ties and communities which can also diminish the grief that can help survivors to restart their lives.
Shweta Tripathi