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The Jed Foundation has provided suggestions to those dealing with the psychological aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and those who want to be supportive of people impacted, at our Half of Us and Love is Louder websites. These suggestions might be helpful for your campuses. I would like to share a few brief thoughts about what we can learn from this disaster about campus and general crisis management.
Hurricane Sandy presented our federal and local governments, our first responders, and the local populations impacted by the storm with a series of extraordinary challenges. The damage was widespread and severe. There were medical emergencies, floods, wind damage, a number of fires and widespread power and transportation outages. Then there were problems in communications, travel (roads blocked or flooded and then gasoline shortages) and getting resources to where they were needed. Nevertheless, given the scope and intensity of these problems, the recovery effort has been robust and surprisingly well organized and coordinated. The system seems to have worked almost as well as could be imagined along most areas of concern.
Role of communication
The effectiveness of news and weather reporting made it possible for many people to plan and avoid the worst of the storm. Then again, it appeared at times that the pervasiveness of live reporting from the anticipated direct storm areas at times led people to go out to some of these areas in the hope of appearing on TV during the storm. Also, the fact that the storm was predicted so far ahead of time seems to have led many people in beach front or low lying areas to feel that the storm was being “overblown” by the media (“it seemed they kept talking about it and nothing was happening”) and they thus took it less seriously than they should.
On the positive side, the images that were brought to national attention after the storm may have helped convey the seriousness of the damage and may have thus sped up the intensity of recovery and volunteer efforts since it was so concretely clear how bad the disaster was. The message for college crises is that it is imperative to recognize that media and reporting do not occur outside of the crisis but are part of it. Media and reporting can impact the way people behave during and after the crisis. University communications professionals and college journalists need to be educated about this.
Role of coordination
The challenges in Sandy occurred across multiple levels: individuals, communities, businesses, communications and power systems, and several levels of government. In order to address the problems, there needed to be communication and coordination across multiple levels and systems at the same time. This type of event requires that there are dynamic systems in place that can continue to dynamically take in new information, and continue to assess, plan and implement as events unfold. Lines of command in this sort of situation need to be strong and clear but flexible and dynamic.
This kind of system also depends on people trusting one another and being able to challenge and disagree with one another. In this kind of situation, people down the chain of command must be confident enough to be able to challenge the “boss” and ask for help from those higher up the chain. This sounds simple, but in many bureaucracies, people are hesitant to show the higher ups that they need help of that they disagree. The multiple levels of structure need to be able to work as partners since the people on the ground often best know what is happening while those up the chain often have the resources to respond. And coordination and communication need to continue to flow through and after the immediate crisis has ended.
Role of planning
A disaster of the scope of Sandy is fortunately a rare event-it was also a predicted (at least in the short run) event. A great deal of planning was put into place before the storm hit. In spite of much being predicted and predictable, many things did not play out as expected. NYU Medical Center certainly did not expect backup power systems to flood and fail and to subsequently need to evacuate patients during the height of the storm.
Crisis planning is a lot like playing jazz. You need to make sure you have a very strong grasp of the necessary information and technical facility and knowledge to manage things effectively; and then you need to be prepared to improvise. In crises (and in playing jazz) things often don’t play out as expected. The system needs to be capable and flexible enough to hear the new information and work with it while things are unfolding. Planning and practicing are crucial, but need to work to make you technically sound enough and confident in your abilities so that you can adapt, adjust and improvise as the crisis unfolds. You cannot rehearse the exact content of the crisis, but you can be aware of the range of options and become aware of the capacity of different partners to respond in various ways-you get used to each other’s style and vocabulary or range of response. Again, as noted above, there is also a strong element of trust needed among the team partners, and planning and practicing can help to inculcate that level of communication and trust among members of the “band” of responders.
I would like to convey my personal condolences to those who lost loved ones, homes and property during this terrible storm. Hopefully, we will rebuild and recover what we can; and heal as well as possible as time goes on. It is small consolation, but if those of us who work with crises and disasters can take a few small lessons in order to better make us able to prepare and respond, we might be able to do an even better job next time.
I hope to follow these comments soon with a few observations about the psychological responses to disasters .
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
