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March 2007                                                                            Volume 12 - Number 3

Perspectives...

A Personal Experience with Disaster
By Rich Wickersham

On March 6th 2003 I was standing in my front yard washing my car enjoying the afternoon sun.  The weather was unusually warm for March so I managed to stay outside most of that day.  While washing my car the wind suddenly picked up and blew our trash cans over.   Dark clouds came out of nowhere but it passed as quickly as it came.   I thought it was strange that the wind would pick up so dramatically without warning but it passed so quickly and the sun returned.  Later I would find out that that type of sudden wind and downburst of air was called a microburst.  As the day progressed into night I saw something on the television about a ferry boat accident in the Baltimore harbor and thought of my friends Andrew and Corrine and  their visit to the Baltimore Aquarium that day.  

On March 7th 2003 early in the morning I was walking in Washington DC on the mall on my way to meet a few friends for a day of soccer.  Once again the weather was unusually warm.  I heard my phone ring and saw that my mother and a few neighbors had called.  I finally managed to get a hold of a friend and he asked me if I had heard from Andrew and I let him know that I had talked to him on Friday but he did not return my calls from the night before.   The only information we knew was that Andrew and Corrine were on a Ferry that had capsized the night before and that no one could find Andrew or Corrine. 
Once this was explained I knew what the outcome would be but I tried to deny it until all hope was lost.   The last body was found on March 16, ten days after The Water Taxi incident took place.

I have experienced disasters through the television and firsthand but I had never experienced one that took anyone important from me.  This was one of my best friends that I grew up with and he was gone.  

Over the next several months I analyzed this situation and thought about how different types of disasters effect people.   It took many mistakes, failures and a tragic chain of events that led to this disaster.   This formula holds true for all disasters.    The chain of this disaster started with a water craft that was not fit to be on the Chesapeake Bay and lax regulations that allowed it to operate.  The second part of this chain was the combined weight of the passengers which was a standard ratio based on the average weight of a person more than two decades ago, today people are much bigger and weigh more.  The NTSB attributed the last part of the chain of events to a lack of policy governing communication of weather events.  The final piece of the chain that caused this disaster in my opinion was an inexperienced Captain.   

My personal experience with the Water Taxi forced me to look at the points of failure in the chain of events that led to this disaster.  Today I take an objective look at the many causes of disasters and realize the potential impact on the people connected to a disaster.  The personal perspective that I developed through the loss of two very good friends has shown me the importance of risk analysis, planning and ultimately preventing the chain of events that leads to a disaster.