CC1709

COMMENT
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Comment
Rebuilt to last?
by David Chadwick
Hurricane Irma devastated whole
countries in the Caribbean before
finally expending its force on Florida.
Hurricane Harvey brought unprecedented
rain to Texas, flooding Houston and other
areas for the second time in two years, while
the east coast of America is still pulling itself
up after last years Hurricane Sandy. And at
the time of writing this Puerto Rico is still
almost entirely without electricity and running
water in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
These 'once in a lifetime' events are now
coming round thick and fast. Whether you
believe in global warming or not, there is no
escaping the fact that we are experiencing
an increasing number of extreme events.
Every year we seem to have nominated one
or another of these freak weather events as
the worst in so many hundred years, only for
the record to be beaten the next year.
The images emerging from the wrecked
Caribbean islands of piles of matchwood
strewn over flattened landscapes, and of
rivers pouring down the main streets of
Miami, though harrowing, hardly testify to the
terror and the hardships yet to be endured
by the inhabitants as they begin to return to
their flattened homes.
I recently came across an article in the
press from Jonathan Katz, who was the
Associated Press bureau chief in Haiti during
the 2010 earthquake, asking people not to
donate to the Red Cross. Katz believes that
we need a new kind of humanitarian aid, and
his case was put across quite convincingly.
The Red Cross is the senior relief
organisation that people turn to, and the
organisation apparently receives $3 billion in
donations annually - but "has shown little
evidence of its ability to spend that money
wisely or meaningfully" beyond doing what
they normally do - provide blankets, fresh
water, hygiene kits etc.
Katz stated that some of the money
received is still waiting to be allocated, and
yet the Red Cross "Consistently fails to
produce a useful breakdown of its spending
after major disasters." Instead, he
advocated, we need to find other ways of
helping people on the ground.
To be fair to the Red Cross, which is a
short-term relief supplier rather than a
development organisation, Katz was also
unable to provide any examples of actions to
mitigate the effects of this and other
disasters. He pointed out, though, that not
only did people lose their homes and
belongings - and some their lives - but they
lost their jobs, their livelihoods, their crops
and the support of a nation's infrastructure.
That means they have to start rebuilding their
lives with no power, no safe water facilities
and no effective communication.
Rebuild they will, using the same
techniques and materials they have always
used - but this time with fewer resources and
less money to spend on stronger structures,
and the infrastructure will be cobbled
together as quickly as possible to connect
the devastated communities with the
minimum they will need to survive. And the
sun will come out again - until the next round
of Hurricanes hit.
The challenge facing the construction
industry is to design buildings that can face
up to the onslaught of a Category 5
hurricane, to devise power generation and
transmittal systems that can weather floods
and high winds, and to provide training and
support to local populations as they rebuild
their lives. The cost would be high - but
nothing compared to the estimated billions
of dollars of damage already done. Or do we
just wait until the next hurricane season and
wonder why nothing has been done to
mitigate them, again?
4 September/October 2017