Sometimes a picture really is worth 1,000 words.
Or laughs.
This image was passed around at work but is legit. It comes from the FEMA web site. However, without the surrounding context, it appears to say the following:
- Disaster leads to a Response
- Response leads to Recovery
- Recovery leads to Mitigation
- Mitigation leads to Risk Reduction
- Risk Reduction leads to Prevention
- Prevention leads to Preparedness
- Preparedness lead to DISASTER!
I wonder if that graphic artist was trying to be funny or scary. Or both.
Posted by jzawodn at October 25, 2005 11:33 AM
And you wonder why they can't preposition supplies in anticipation or get unused mobile housing moved relatively short distances to where they are needed. They can't even manage a simple message like this one. This is sad. I can see no other way to interpret this figure. Way to go FEMA.
I'm having recollections of that ready.gov mess after 9/11, and I still think Michael Jackson is a terrorist!
Joking aside, this actually seems right to me. FEMA is designed for no other purpose than to handle disasters... Being 'prepared' prior to the disaster is the point.
FEMA chart becomes brunt of joke
http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/2005/10/fema_chart_beco.html
Remember the three month's worth of housing money FEMA promised people displaced by Katrina? Well, here (North Carolina) a lot of them haven't received it and are about to be booted out of their apartments, motels, whatever. Why?
Because FEMA mailed their checks to their addresses in New Orleans.
Amazing.
Yeah Z, you really need to start watching the Daily Show. :)
Jeez, I watched that Daily Show clip and could barely stand it. It's like "news" for people who graduate from SNL's Weekend Update. Truly puerile and useless.
"Truly puerile and useless" is sort of the point of the Daily Show...
You must not have ever dealt with FEMA before.
After a disaster, they will only give out funds for repairs that go into making things exactly as they were before the disaster.
So, if a road floods, or a house, you have to build it in the exact same location, at the exact same elevation, with the same materials, etc. They don't pay for repairs which may prevent a future disaster from being as bad.
Or, at least, that's been my direct experience.
"You must not have ever dealt with FEMA before.
After a disaster, they will only give out funds for repairs that go into making things exactly as they were before the disaster.
So, if a road floods, or a house, you have to build it in the exact same location, at the exact same elevation, with the same materials, etc. They don't pay for repairs which may prevent a future disaster from being as bad.
Or, at least, that's been my direct experience."
So when does the responsibilitiy of to live ABOVE sea-level rest with the resident??? Or, did we all forget what the definition of responsibility is - being that we're so used to instant gratification AND we're all part of the new Generation Blame folks that's emerged recently.
It's the American way of life to not know how to fix anything remotely complicated.
However, if the fix involves dropping bombs from 35,000 feet in the air, ontop of innocent women and kids then no problem.
Simple solutions for simple people and stuff.
The Americans forgot that not all solutions are fixed by dropping bombs, and the New Orleans affair was a prime example of this theory.
Mike, I'm not so sure anyone has a responsiblity to anyone else to live above sealevel. Your logic would prohibit people living in floodplains, earthquake zones, most of the southeast and a good chunk of the northeast (hurricanes), and almost everything west of Colorado (tornados).
While we all need to accept our personal responsibility for events within our ability to prevent, transfering responsbility for the impact of natural disasters entirely to the victims of those disasters -- on the grounds that they should have known they were living in an area subject to disaster --strikes me as deliberate evasion of the bonds of social responsiblility that link us all together. Unless, of course, you're really denying your own responsibllity for the wellbeing of anyone but yourself.
RandomLoser - be sure to post your address and country here.
There is plenty of blame to go around in the Katrina debacle, and that does not diminish the effect of Brown's ineptitude.
The unfortunate reality is that most of us do not visualize responding to a disaster event until it happens. Obviously Brown, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin did not visualize much until well after the hurricane hit (poor or missing communications links may have played a role in this). This phenomenon is sometimes called the "horizon effect."
Evidently, worst case scenarios must be considered before implementing any disaster response, and effective command and control mechanisms must be used. This is probably why the response from the military during Katrina was so well implemented. Military, law enforcement, and firefighting officers usually think in terms of worst case scenarios because these are usually what they confront. Few political leaders have the skills required to deal with these types of situations, probably because the electorate chooses them based on their popular appeal, and not necessarily their actual ability to lead under adversity.
"It is deeply troubling that ---- 20 years after Chernobyl, 11 years after the Northridge quake, two years after the Paradise Fire ---- our leaders are mostly just talking about disaster preparedness." (North County Times, Oct. 18, 2005)
For a further discussion see URL: http://california_now.blogspot.com/
They haven't changed the graphic yet? Somebody in your government should start reading blogs. ;)
Obviously this is a late response to this blog but seemingly still relevant since a search for something related pulled it up.
The EM cycle is a good graphic and any dipstick can decipher it how they want.... in reality, it works. I ta takes any past function or event and learns from it. I am sure the original post person only intended to point out a pun or "neeto" interpretation of an obvious graphic.
Point is... Don't forget we are a collection of states. Local EM and state Governors HAVE TO REQUEST resources from the federal EM (FEMA).
The fault in my opinion rests on the dipsticks voted in as Mayor (New Orleans) and Governors(LA.).... in this (Katrina)particular occasion.
Whine all you want ..... but individuals also have a responsibility to prepare a bit.... jeez... the grasshopper and ant story.... noone get that anymore?
