After
watching the videos and analyzing various sources, I believe that the mold left
behind after the two hurricanes possess a serious health risk to the victims.
This is the case as Hurricane Irma devastation of Florida drenched the city 16
inches of its water while Hurricane Harvey managed to discard over 50 inches of
rain in Louisiana and Texas (Welch, Ashley 1). As it is
often the case, when people’s residents and places of works have been flooded
and swamped in the process, the moisture that is left behind forms the ideal
ground for mold to breed (Welch, Ashley 1). Widespread mold problem could
easily led to respiratory diseases among the residents. At the same time, mold
can easily trigger asthma and other form of allergies.
Looking at the aftermath of the two
hurricanes, one can easily see that stress and anxiety did take a huge toll on
the seniors, children, and other vulnerable populations. This is the case as
all of those groups did find it hard to get access to the resources that they
need to survive (Scutti, Suzan 1). The children were simply not
used to such events where dealing with the stress was simply too much for them
to handle. The elderly, on the other end, suffered from stress and anxiety as
many of them simply did not know what to do or if help was coming their way.
The vulnerable population always depend on certain resources to get independent
which in this case not forthcoming, an event that led to stress and anxiety (Scutti,
Suzan 1).
The two health problem are significantly
different as the problem with mold was something that took place sometimes
later after the two disasters have subsided which could give people ample time
to prepare. But the issue to do with stress and anxiety was immediate where people
simply could not know what to do. The fear of the unknown as well as dying in
the process was simply too much for many people to handle.
Question 2
There is no doubt that when it comes
to disaster response, formal system will fall short if it does not find a way
of involving all form of informal responses in a more useful way. While
informal response sometimes does not have the right training, their zeal to
help always end up saving more lives that could have easily been lost. The same
was true when it came to the response after Hurricane Harvey and Irma became eminent.
Cajun Navy was the first unit to arrive on both sites even before the
government could provide their response strategy (Holley, Peter 1). Cajun navy
operated by having boats that look for people in distress where in this case
they end up saving more lives.
For hurricane Harvey, Cajun Navy had
an active Facebook that encourage members to post where their family members
could possibly be where there were people in place that were ready to go and help
such people (Holley, Peter 1). This strategy proved to be very
successful as it help Cajun navy team not only to know where the victims could
be but to also find a way of reaching there quickly. Combining their efforts
with the local people do-it-ourself rescue system resulted in many lives being
saved in the process. The same was also being done in Florida and Louisiana
where the informal response team were the first to hit the ground.
While the government came in with
much bigger support, it is the immediate response by the informal system that
defined the destiny of the people affected by the two floods. As a matter of
fact, the government effort only came to compliment what the informal response
system was doing only that it did it in the official capacity. The government
did indeed help significantly in saving a lot of lives through the deployment
of firefighters, police, as well as the National Guard who went a long way in
doing all they could to save as many lives as possible which they did. There
were over 3,100 FEMA team members that were actively helping the victims where
they ended up saving 1,006 lives (FEMA 1). The United
State Cost Guard also ended up saving a total of 326 people with the task force ended up rescuing 1, 141 people (FEMA 1). But in a storm
of Irma and Harvey’s sheer devastation, no single government response would
have been enough. As such, it is only fair to say that both informal responses
such as that done by Cajun navy and other volunteer as well as the effort done
by the government were all very instrumental in saving lives.
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