Responses to posts in Friends’ page/s.
IN emergency situations, including in wars, but mostly after devastation of a natural calamity, “makeshift” places that offer essential needs to people don't close at all. Especially “tent hospitals” and relief camps that feed people and attend to their basic needs and health conditions. In many cases (in my experience in other countries) workers, both from government agencies and NGO volunteer institutions, go door to door to check on people since ways to communicate (phones etc) and means to move around (cars etc) are out of the question.
Individuals who offer to help enlist with "official" professional groups to facilitate a better organization of aid. Press or media people coordinate via a nerve center "camp" so dissemination of info is orchestrated. To keep order and calm, soldiers are deployed as they also render manual labor assistance (remove felled trees, hike to reach isolated spots etc). These, I saw during an ongoing disaster and then reinforced when the calamity subsided, as search and rescue doubled up.
Asheville: I see segments of such a primal community reflex employed in neighborhoods in WNC as they carried out help. Curfew is no brainer since they needed to rest, of course, then open again the next day. But government functionaries and NGO/non-profit operations don’t stop. Staff and volunteers work/ed per shifts.
When I say I am frustrated with the city (and federal) government, it is borne from the fact that I don't see a 24-hour, 24/7 effort to deliver dire community service, post-Helene. During the devastation? Figure it out.
"They didn't see it coming" or the emergency was unexpected are unacceptable excuses. Emergencies are unexpected, isn't it? That is why it is called an “emergency.” In the past, as a journalist and aid worker,I saw government staff coordinate with known rescue groups, notably the Red Cross. Nonstop, till situations normalize/d. Private business and individual volunteers help but they must not be faulted if they close or rest at a certain time. But, I repeat, government-run rescue/aid centers should not close at any time as well as NGOs or nonprofits that are recognized as aid groups. 🌬💨💓
IN my experience in other calamity-hit countries or towns, essential services were (are) active, 24/7: <>Door to door check to ensure people are served or attended to. Yes, including applications for personal government aid. Professional personnel are there to fix whatever. Of course, they come with relief goods and medical staff. All are served, including non-citizens and illegals. No need to show IDs or paperwork.
<>Specific spots (such as hospitals, bathrooms etc) are open, 24/7. Soldiers and law enforcers are around to help keep order. <>In these internet days, wifi is available in specific spots where electric power is restored or wifi can be had via other means, such as satellite internet (Starlink?) plugged to a generator or giant vehicles. These spots, albeit makeshift, are located in media nerve center headquarters or each spot has a media desk, where reports and data and info are orchestrated or organized. Yes, these areas are real even in ongoing wars.
<>I didn't see this in ravaged Asheville where I live. But private volunteers and neighbors a.k.a. The community filled the vacuum via sheer reflex and resilience. And yes, three weeks after the fact, we still don't have water. 🌬💨💓
[Photo credits: Western North Carolina. Adobe Stock.]
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