*stares in the entire body of emergency management research*
This all was of course best summarized by Dr. Tierney on #COVIDCalls many many months ago.
A failure to coordinate has been at the heart of every failed response in the history of disaster. So much so that we've developed an entire profession & an entire discipline of study created for the purpose of *coordinating* during times of crisis.
These reports are necessary and important (and s/o to @sherifink for being so great at covering this) but if the people in positions of authority are not going to take immediate and *sustained* action that changes funding and policy then this is all just going to happen again.
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Whew. A pretty graphic opening wildfire scene, an explosion, and the classic 'family having breakfast together' to reel us in...
I didn't quite think through how difficult this will be to live-tweet without spoilers... I'll keep things very vague since probably none of you have seen this yet. 😬
Among the many horrific things Rush Limbaugh did and said he was also a persistent disaster denialist.
It's a long list but in the past few years, he actively encouraged people not to follow hurricane evacuation orders (while evacuating himself). buzzfeednews.com/article/davidm…
He persistently lied about climate change and their relationship to disasters.
This is another disaster where the needs are so geographically widespread that my best advice on giving is to just pick a person/group/ organization and give them money.
My personal approach in a situation like this is to do the following: 1. Help anyone I know personally who needs help 2. Donate to any groups I've worked with before/ know they're effective 3. Local groups that serve marginalized people that haven't gotten many donations
I do usually recommend donating to groups that work on recovery rather than response. I actually feel differently in this situation specifically because of the pandemic. So this isn't a factor I'm considering right now.
I often get comments about how my criticism of various democrats re: disasters is unfair because "at least they aren't Trump". 😅
Sure, democrats are not chucking paper towels at people but they also are not doing an effective job of meeting disaster-related needs.
What is happening right now is, unfortunately, a perfect example of why elected officials (national and local) need to explain the causes of disasters AND what they are going to do to prevent them in the future.
A common genre of disaster tweet is someone making a snarky comment that blames disaster survivors for the disaster because of their state’s political affiliation.
This is a problem for several reasons but the big one is that generally the same communities that tend to be most impacted by disasters are the same ones that are most likely to be kept from voting.
I wrote about this a few months ago right before the election.