Hurricane Sandy: After-action review and impact analysis

AAR Sandy

AAR for the Course

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the importance of this course becomes clearer than ever. Understanding the institutional supports for and barriers to effective emergency management is critical for all citizens. As Baldwin (2005) points out, healthcare specialists are particularly responsible for arming themselves with knowledge and preparedness. Knowing the principles, types, and forms of health management systems that exist enables healthcare leaders to change or improve those services. We become empowered by this knowledge, and the ability to inform public and institutional policy.

AAR for Sandy

Although it seemed like chaos at the time, the emergency response to Hurricane Sandy was and remains an overall success. Not enough time has elapsed since the event to judge it with perfect hindsight vision, but analysts are reporting that the FEMA response, coupled with local response efforts were aptly targeted, and dealt with problems in an efficient manner (Iverson, 2012). It has been impossible not to compare the AAR for Sandy with that of Hurricane Katrina, which nearly everyone agreed represents the textbook version of what should not, rather than what should, be done. Yet as Baldwin (2005) points out, healthcare personnel should remain wary that their skill sets are not up to the standards that will undoubtedly be required of us in the upcoming years. Disasters are, with nearly complete certainty getting worse and more frequent, too. "If it seems like disasters are getting more common, it's because they are. But some disasters seem to be affecting us in worse ways -- and not for the reasons you may think," (Ripley, 2008). What Ripley (2008) means is that storms themselves are not getting worse, necessarily. The earth has been ravaged by all sorts of natural disasters since the dawn of time, not to mention the various other disasters of human origin as well as disease. The difference is that population growth in coastal urban centers has risen to an alarming extent. With greater numbers of people in smaller, more vulnerable areas, disaster relief efforts are harder to conceptualize, strategize, and implement effectively. Perhaps that is the main lesson we learned form Katrina, and which we are applying to Hurricane Sandy. This is precisely what Krisberg (2006) points out, noting a "shortage of health care professionals and a "fragmented public health system" as being primary problems (p. 2-3).

I have the honor of knowing a cadre of emergency workers on Long Island. Their experiences with Hurricane Sandy has revealed to me in practice what we have learned through this course. For one, my colleagues on Long Island noted two main issues that made the response and relief effort more successful than it was after Katrina. On Long Island, anyway, the relief had the quality of being coordinated. Coordination -- of services, or personnel, and of local vs. external resources -- is probably the most important critical factor that determines the effectiveness of a disaster management program. In towns like Huntington, Long Island, where my colleagues work, a disaster preparedness system had already been in place. The system had been tested, its kinks worked out with relative thoroughness. Enhancing the coordination of relief services requires a commitment to change, and that means welcoming information technology into our fray. It is not enough to have a team of personnel with Red Cross certification, if that team cannot communicate with one another, share ideas, experiences, and resources. Therefore, coordination depends on communication. Successful communication in turn depends on what my colleagues call the "well oiled machine" of their local community's public health service system. One arm knows what the other arm is doing, and can communicate that information to the head. The second issue my colleagues addressed related to the success of the disaster relief was the fact that their organization had no staffing shortages. This is not something all healthcare service departments and organizations can boast about, yet.