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Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management Crisis and Emergency Management Newsletter Website |
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October
2004
Volume 7
- Number 1 |
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Personal
Disaster Perspective – Hurricane Isabel Hurricane Isabel wasn’t actually a hurricane by the time it reached Virginia Beach, VA the seaside city of just less than 440,000 people. Virginia Beach would, in most states, be considered a county, but in Virginia, where state law excludes cities from their surrounding counties, several suburban and rural communities came together in 1963 to acquire “city” status. Regardless, of the region’s legal status, the weather channel told us that Hurricane Isabel was coming and not having had any hurricanes come ashore in southeastern Virginia for many years, people were taking this one seriously. Home Depot sold out of generators, tarps and chain saws; plywood tripled in price in a matter of days and batteries and bottled water disappeared from every store in the city. Boats were taken out of the harbors and everything was tied down or brought indoors. I watched the weather channel as the storm came ashore in North Carolina, and continuously checked the internet for updates from the national hurricane center. As the storm stalled over North Carolina, it became clear that the storm surge was going to coincide with the high tide. At the time, I lived in Pennsylvania, but I had taken the week off to visit my parents in Virginia Beach, and I quickly became the cheap labor that they knew they had raised for just such emergencies. As the winds began to pick up and the rain started falling it wasn’t very long until the power disappeared and it got black outside, and I mean really black, no light from anywhere in sight. The worst of it passed just before nightfall, and with the cool dusk winds rain still falling from the trees, there was only enough light to make sure that there wasn’t any damage to the house and go to bed. Tomorrow would be a long day. The entire neighborhood was covered in green. Leaves from the trees were everywhere. In my parent’s yard, about 2 acres on a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, 3 trees had fallen, and the street was blocked, there was no significant damage to the house or dock. It was time to see the rest of the neighborhood. Most houses fared well, but there were a few with some significant tree damage. Two houses in particular were bisected by 60 year old oak trees that had toppled over in the wind. Pine trees were down everywhere, and many roads would have been impassible to vehicles. It was time for everyone to do yard work. Neighbors helping neighbors, borrowing leaf blowers, saws and hands, it was a rare showing of community spirit. Everyone’s yard was a mess, even those who didn’t have any damage to their homes. Those with chainsaws cleared enough of the road to make one open lane, and then the sawing, raking and chopping of homeowners happened hundreds of thousands of times all over the city that day. The Y2K bug that never caused civil unrest and chaos, had done something good: my parents had bought a generator, and it was still in its crate in the garage. It started easily and the refrigerators and freezers were plugged in. As far as my perspective, it was learning experience for the city, which hadn’t dealt with a hurricane in at least 15 years. Many of the city officials had never managed wide scale destruction and power outages. And to my knowledge there were no casualties in Virginia Beach as a result of the storm. There was one thing that surprised me, the post office didn’t deliver mail. Wasn’t there some saying about “the mail must get through?”
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