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What Will it Take to Make Us Better Prepared For Life’s Disasters?

By Don Adams

Article suggested by Pastor-Genève

In this world of live TV broadcasting, it’s likely few have missed witnessing the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina.

An overwhelming sense of helplessness permeates the lives of thousands of victims in New Orleans and other affected areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. You need cold steel in your heart and ice water in your veins to not be mournful of their plight.

The pattern of Katrina prior to its cataclysmic route was coined by some to be “nothing to worry about” as it whirled 95 miles per hour gusts through portions of Miami eventually causing about 100 millions dollars of estimated damage. And, this was before it locked its sight on New Orleans.

Why do people pretend certain things won’t happen to them? Like dying prematurely … or becoming disabled … or running out of food and water.

Even when a crisis situation is up close and in our face we tend to quickly dismiss it. For example, the car accident scene we just passed as paramedics were placing severely injured passengers into the ambulance. You could see pools of blood on the street and twisted metal with broken glass strewn everywhere.

Then, once beyond the accident scene we began accelerating to speeds excessively over the posted limits. Out of sight… out of mind.

Why won’t we take these real life experiences seriously enough to prepare for the worst?

On Aug. 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew slammed into South Florida. It wiped out Homestead, Florida City and parts of Miami before continuing northwest across the Gulf of Mexico to strike the Louisiana coastline.

The storm was responsible for 40 deaths and $30-billion in property damage. At the time, it was the costliest disaster in U.S history.

We have only just begun to calculate the cost of Hurricane Katrina. More than likely, it will be beyond our capacity to imagine.

During August and September 2004, Florida was lambasted by Hurricanes Charley, Dennis, Ivan and Jeanne. The damage was astounding and perhaps foretold of things to come - like Katrina.

So, why don’t we better prepare for these dramas of Mother Nature? Why do we ignore the fact that what happened before will most assuredly happen again?

On September 11, 1992 (less than one month after Andrew) Hurricane Iniki leveled every telephone pole and hundreds of trees on the Island of Kauai in Hawaii. Fortunately no one was killed and yet the preparation for this disaster was postponed because it was originally forecast to be less severe.

Planning for any disaster is filled with complications. Various departments of local, state and federal governments often clash due to opposing viewpoints or budget constraints.

Interesting isn’t it? When panic is upon us … when the disaster has struck … more often than not we rise to the occasion. And yet, we frequently fail to prepare for future disasters that could threaten the lives of our own family.

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