The Mississippi is flooding.
Sunday a tornado ripped through Joplin, Missouri, destroying whole neighborhoods. Last month tornadoes left tens of thousands homeless, and in March we were riveted by images with hundreds of thousands displaced by the earthquake and then tsunami in Japan.
History -- and the scenes flooding our TV sets today -- vividly illustrate that preparations for housing victims of large-scale disasters are critically lacking.
While we make valiant efforts to mitigate the impact of potential catastrophes we are often left scrambling to provide displaced people with the basic necessities after they've been hit.
Though safe building codes and protective infrastructure are essential, we cannot make our homes invulnerable and therefore we must be prepared -- we must be better prepared -- for the aftermath of natural disasters beyond our control.
The images may fade quickly from the front pages and TV screens but the suffering of the victims is just beginning, as they are forced into temporary housing like motel rooms or trailers, often far from their neighborhoods.
Many of the displaced victims are again being housed in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) trailers, which are slow to arrive, cost upward of $30,000, and provide only temporary and unsafe shelter arrangements. There is a terrible irony in the fact that natural disaster victims are housed in the exact kind of shelter that is most vulnerable to natural disasters: mobile trailer units.
FEMA trailers are also typically located in camps remote from the neighborhoods where disaster victims had their homes originally. This adds to the dislocation and upheaval caused by these terrible events. Forced to move, disaster victims often lose their connections with neighbors, jobs, and schools, profoundly disrupting communities for months or years. Many, especially the vulnerable elderly and disabled, become permanently homeless as direct consequence of natural disasters. This is an unconscionable waste of funds, livelihoods, and lives.
Fortunately, a far better and more cost effective alternative has been developed thanks to advances in engineering. It looks like this - inexpensive hurricane-flood-and-earthquake-resistant emergency kit houses that can be quickly and easily erected onsite. These modular houses are plug-and-play, incorporating electrical and plumbing systems that are ready to be connected. If necessary, they can be equipped with self-contained composting toilets, generators, and water tanks.
The cost of such kits, which can provide permanent, safe two-bedroom housing units, is comparable to the cheapest FEMA shelters, and they can be erected in a couple of days by small teams of people with no special training.
Kit houses can often be erected directly on the sites of homes that were destroyed. They also meet or exceed the strictest US building codes and are usable, permanent homes; alternately, they can also easily be dismantled, packed flat and stored for future emergencies. Such kit shelters should be stockpiled in warehouses in earthquake, hurricane, flood and tornado prone areas by FEMA.
They could then arrive on the scene, by truck (or where necessary helicopter), and be erected within a few days of a disaster, eliminating the need for costly 'temporary' emergency shelter and the long-term displacement of families.
Our current approach creates additional trauma for the already traumatized by forcing victims to live in temporary unsuitable conditions, and the time has come to choose a better way. While kit houses may not be suitable for immediate use on highly damaged sites and cannot replicate a lost, beloved home, they offer the best and safest way to restore a normal way of life and provide a foundation for continued recovery.
If victims knew that they could return to a brand new permanent home in their old neighborhood, built rapidly with their own efforts the sense of helplessness, loss, destitution, and desperation would be alleviated by hope for a brighter future.
Ruth Bettelheim, Ph.D. is a Los Angeles psychotherapist, life coach, and writer who lost her home in an earthquake.
Nicole Neroulias: Amma the Hugging Saint's Answer to Natural Disasters and Suffering
Rev. Gerald L. Mansholt: A Long Journey Of Faith: Walking With Joplin's Peace Lutheran Church
Randy Turner: Joplin Tornado Ends School Year for Most Inspirational Teacher
Vicki B. Escarra: With Resources Scarce, Food Banks Are Joplin's Lifeline
I mean, this is the internet, you know....
Much of the personal incentive for repairing and replacing a home damaged in a natural disaster is lost when longer term housing is provided such as FEMA trailers.
My Christian upbringing tells me we need to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, heal the sick and injured before we go after unfettered access to oil.
Also, the blood for oil argument is quite stale, unoriginal, and wrong. Find someone besides GW Bush to pick on.
And where are the pictures of the trailer-tractors and other vehicles providing water and food for the survivors of this disaster? What food, medical help and other necessities are being provided for them? There are food banks that are helping but many of those were destroyed during the tornadoes and there is no power for people to use to store foods that need refrigeration or electricity or gas for cooking. Where is the delivery of ice? Why are we not seeing the aid?
I made 6 trips to the Gulf Coast post Katrina for volunteer work. Three years after the storm there was still a significant amount of folks housed in "temporary housing."
I have not yet served with them but have seen their operations at other disasters that I have volunteered at and have talked to folks that have served with them. They seem to be a very good organization.
http://www.samaritanspurse.org/
Shelters were no help - most pet rescues did not have pastures or enough kennels to house many animals. Sad to say, the couple who bought my acres and took over the rescue are not continuing the practice of helping animals in cases of natural disasters. Just proves to me that animals are a heck of a lot more trustworthy than most people!
I would also add - why on the Earth our houses are so easy to break ????
Looking on leftover I (we) see just a mess of plywood and blocks?
How did we expect those shed to survive in hurricanes, storms and against tornado???? How it is possible? Just to rely on occasion? In America, when 70 % of states are under this attacks of nature?
What the hell is "security code" for those buildings???? It is NONE. They are sheds !
Hell, we are trying to teach The World how to manage the life in decent manner and keep building sheds for American people to live in?????
This is not acceptable, it is Disrespectable. And FIMA should do something certain about this, not just collect pieces and give victim’s families another shed in stead of previous one….till the next “occasion.
Left with nothing....means just that. Nothing. Nothing but the ripped and torn shirt on your back.
This is great advice on how to approach the rebuilding the communities making the victim's traumatic recovery paramount.
Good job.
This is just why a retired architect came up with an emercy shelter kit for Haiti (or any other disaster area) wich is fast & easy to deliver & assemble, resist tremors + hurricanes, sleeps up to 10, cost a mere 3,500 $ , can be knocked down and reassembled.
See http://openarchitecturenetwork.org/projects/kreole_house