After two days without power, the lights came back on, and we rolled the generator back into the barn. In rural Maine, two days was record time for restoring power, given the number of trees the storm had knocked down. The local papers and newscasts spoke of Irene, at least in Maine, as being a near miss and a wake-up call. The last hurricane that did some damage in Maine was almost 10 years ago.
Most residents living on the East Coast of the United States would have to say that most of the Northeast, Vermont and Upstate New York being exceptions, were quite lucky. Given the death and destruction that a storm the size of Irene could have reaped, the damage that occurred was relatively minor. But given the weather changes that are occurring, it is likely that we will be dealing with more hurricanes in the very near future, and we may not be as lucky. Hopefully, the storm is a wake-up call. Not just for restocking the Ready Kit, which I would hope most people have -- but I'm sure many don't - but for looking at how we think about and deal with the very real likelihood of a natural disaster.
Later this month, Maine Resilience will begin a program of community preparedness in Scarborough, Maine, that is an attempt to integrate the skills and the attitudes of resilience with the traditional preparedness program offered by the Emergency Management Agencies in Maine. The program will teach the basic skills and attitudes of resilience combining both face-to-face classroom work with online resources. As part of the training, students will have an opportunity to go through ahurricane simulation exercise. The exercise will ask students to examine how they would prepare, especially emotionally, for the prospect of a Category 4 hurricane striking the coast and how they would deal with the event and its aftermath. Once trained, these trainers will work with other community groups, employees and first responders in passing on what they have learned to their community. The program is a pilot and will hopefully serve as a model for developing similar programs throughout the region and perhaps the nation.
I would encourage you to see Hurricane Irene as a wake-up call. We have time now to prepare for the next one which may not be a near miss.
