EMERGENCY RISK REDUCTION

It’s worthwhile to look back at events, because as we often hear…”there’s nothing new under the sun.” The end of the year is an appropriate time to review a few disasters and emergencies, and perhaps weaknesses in preparedness and response. Maybe we can learn a few lessons.

As we know, disasters can be either human-induced or natural.  Worldwide, natural disasters were numerous, so I’ll only mention a few here in North America, because we in our comfort often become complacent to the power and ferocity of weather conditions. Most major natural disasters involved wildfire.

On May 1, a wildfire began near Fort McMurray, Alberta, a northern town in this large Canadian province. On May 3, it swept through the community, destroying approximately 2,400 homes and buildings and forcing the largest wildfire evacuation in Alberta history. It continued to spread across northern Alberta and into Saskatchewan, consuming forested areas and impacting Athabasca oil sands operations, extracting shade oil for processing and marketing. The fire spread across approximately 590,000 hectares (1,500,000 acres) before it was declared under control on July 5.  It has been calculated as the costliest disaster in Canadian history.

In November, on the other side of the continent, the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee were ablaze.   Named because of proximity to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, some towns most impacted were Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. The fires burned >10,000 acres (15 square miles) inside the park, and >6,000 acres outside the park. At least 14,000 Gatlinburg residents and tourists were forced to evacuate, and > 1600 buildings were damaged or destroyed.  The fires claimed at least 14 lives and injured at least 135. It is one the largest natural disasters in the history of Tennessee.

There were several other wildfires of note in the United States, with flames engulfing areas of California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming.  ‘Interface’ fires between forest areas and population centers prompted evacuations in Oregon, Nevada and Wyoming.

The major human-induced disasters were those that have been around for several years. This includes the civil conflict in the Middle Eastern countries. Who cannot consider the war in Syria, Iran, and Iraq a disaster? And the unprecedented movement of civilians, either as refugees (cross-border) or internally displaced persons (IDPs) within their country.  What a tragedy, and good on the countries, communities, agencies, faith-based groups, and individuals who have opened their doors to those fleeing life-and-death conditions. As I write this in a coffee shop in Canada, there’s statistically a very small threat of violent incident or terror bombing. But in some cities and countries, the possibility of a bomb going off in a restaurant or bar is very real. We should count our blessings as we begin 2017, and trust that it will be a safe, healthy, and prosperous new year.

Thanks for reading.