ReNe: on cyclones and goverments who reject aid

NY Times had an interesting, succinct piece on cyclones today, a term for a cyclic storm system first coined by Henry Piddington in the 1840s.

Piddington was among the earliest to recognize that a cyclone wreaks most of its damage not through wind but through water, by means of the devastating wave that is known as a “storm surge.”

This distinction is vital because,

The phenomenon of the storm surge has been extensively researched since Piddington’s day, yet few public-response systems have drawn the obvious lesson. To this day, the warnings that accompany a storm’s approach typically say nothing about moving to high ground: their prescription is usually to seek shelter indoors. As a result people tend to hunker down in the strongest structure within reach — only to find themselves trapped when the surge comes sweeping through.

The main point of the article was that,

...a nation need not be wealthy or technologically advanced to be well prepared for natural disasters.

A case in point is Mauritius, a small Indian Ocean island in a zone that meteorologists call a “cyclone factory.” The islanders have evolved a sophisticated system of precautions, combining a network of cyclone shelters with education (including regular drills), a good early warning system and mandatory closings of businesses and schools when a storm threatens. It’s been a remarkable success: Cyclone Gamede of 2007, a monster of a storm that set global meteorological records for rainfall, killed only two people on the island.

--NY Times, Death Comes Ashore, 10 May 2008

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Towards the end of the article, I came across an interesting line about President Bush’s rejection of the offers of foreign aid that poured in after Hurricane Katrina. This was the first time I've heard of this, so I googled for it. It was surprisingly hard to dig up a 'proper' reference; there were mentions here and there in outraged blogs but those were like Chinese whispers. Finally, I found something that better corroborates the statement in the above article,

Just a day after Hurricane Katrina decimated the U.S. Gulf Coast, Cuba offered to send 1,586 bi-lingual Cuban doctors and 37 tons of medicines and medical equipment to the devastated areas. They could have been dispatched immediately on Cuban aircraft, at no cost to the United States. Fort Lauderdale-based Gulfstream Airways also immediately offered to fly all the doctors to the United States, free of harge, if there had been any difficulty in sending the doctors on Cuban aircraft. There was no response from Washington. According to Wayne Smith, former Chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, "Given the desperate situation on the Gulf Coast, one might have expected a rapid response from Washington, especially as MEDICC (Medical Education Cooperation With Cuba), a nonprofit association based in Atlanta, described the Cuban doctors as highly trained and noted that 'Cuba's experience and expertise in disaster management is so relevant to the current crisis and its aftermath in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.' . . . What a shame. Not even in the face of the massive human suffering caused by Hurricane Katrina could the Bush Administration put aside its knee-jerk rejection of anything coming out of Cuba."

--The United States and Cuba: Strands of a Failed Policy,
by Mavis Anderson, Latin America Working Group (LAWG)

Just last week, after Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar, Laura Bush was all over the (US) news, "urging Myamar to accept US aid". Let me get it right: Three years ago, Hurricane Katrina hit the US and Cuba offered aid, which was rejected by the Bush administration. Now, Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar and the US offered aid, and to-date, it is still unsure if Myanmar is accepting this aid. So if the US, faced with the same situation three years ago, could turn down Cuba's aid for 'security concerns', what moral authority do they have to lecture Myanmar for doing the same? Not that Myanmar is right for rejecting aid from the US, but the supreme irony kills me.

...(Mrs. Bush) faulted the junta for proceeding with a May 10 constitutional referendum that she described as a sham, and criticized government leaders for not warning citizens about the storm.

"We know already that they are very inept," she said.

--snip--

"I'm worried that they won't even accept U.S. aid," Mrs. Bush said. "And I urge the government to accept aid from the United States and from the entire international community right now while the needs of their people are so critical."

--Associated Press, 5 May 2008

All I can say is, glass houses and stones.