how hurricane helene applies to earthquake countr

I wrote the information below from the perspective of anyone living and working in an areas of the United States subject significant earthquakes. This includes the Pacific Northwest where I live, California of course and other regions of the nation.

The 2024 hurricane season has been a memorable one, especially with the impact that Hurricane Helene had on the mountainous areas of North Carolina. Now, even months after the hurricane and the rains are gone, the search and recovery for missing people continues and small pieces of the community infrastructure are beginning to be pieced back together.

What can we learn from that disaster and how those lessons can be applied to our own situation here in earthquake country? The disaster and the hazards may be different, but the experiences we see being played out in North Carolina can be instructive to our own geographical setting.

First and foremost, we need to expect the unexpected. Almost every disaster has someone on television saying, “I’ve lived here all my life and I’ve never seen anything like this!” You may be 80 years old, but that is a simple dot on the geological timeline of our region. Additionally, with climate change we can expect more frequent, more severe and longer duration storms. Past history, when it comes to disasters is not a good predictor of future losses—one only has to talk to insurance companies who are revising their premium schedules upward to adjust to this new reality.

In our modern society we expect the water to flow when we turn on the faucet and electricity to work when we flip a switch. In a post disaster world with catastrophic damage, all our infrastructures will be significantly impacted. Water is essential to sustaining life.

Post earthquake, the most critical of all infrastructures is our surface transportation systems. Roads, bridges, railroads and our ports are critical to moving disaster supplies and restoring other critical infrastructures. The decimation of the roads and bridges in North Carolina is the single issue that has slowed the immediate disaster response and will impact their disaster recovery. Earthquakes are our greatest threat and there is still much work to be done to seismically retrofit our bridges. However, in Washington State the last big Seattle Fault Earthquake was a “thrust fault” and the ground was displaced over 20 feet, up and down. What infrastructure can survive that?

Given the above, the States of Washington and Oregon have stated that individuals and families should be prepared to be “on their own” for two weeks. In a recent conversation with a past national FEMA Administrator, he thought that might not be enough preparedness.

Much has been said about the initial $750.00 immediate needs payment being provided by FEMA. Future FEMA payments will not exceed a total of $43,000. That is for all categories of assistance, including things like unemployment payments. The federal government will not make you whole! There are low interest loans available from the Small Business Administration (SBA), but you must be qualified to repay them.

Hopefully you have home insurance, but if the home is impacted by a flood, landslide or earthquake, your regular insurance policy will not cover losses from those hazards. You need to decide what level of personal risk you are willing to bear. Remember, we keep seeing homes outside of the flood plain—flooding from excessive rain. 

Emergency managers previously prepared for what was called “rumor control” where an effort was made to correct incorrect information that gets spread in a chaotic post disaster situation. Now we have efforts both domestically and from foreign governments looking to destroy trust in our government institutions. It comes in the form of misinformation and outright disinformation—lies!  In this case it is up to all of us to be careful about what we consume as “news” and avoid spreading lies via our own social media channels.

The only good news I have is that we will all get through a future disaster by working together.