Hurricane Sandy

I mentioned Hurricane Sandy in an earlier blog this week and noted that I would comment.  Last night, I had the opportunity to speak with a physician who has a home in New Jersey about his experience.  He said that it was truly like a war zone along with all of the hardship that such an experience would bring; fortunately the death toll was low, but it could have been far worse.  He said that he was amazed at the level of preparation that existed at Home Depot, for example.  Our government, not so much.  Home Depot took their resources and products from across the nation and completely overloaded the East Coast in advance of the storm.  He said that he was amazed as to their level of preparation. 

As for government, they mobilized around 48 hours after the hurricane hit.  There was chaos, confusion, shortages of everything, no power, no food, no water, no gasoline, houses flooded or destroyed......it was sheer bedlam.   I read of FEMA and the Red Cross being ill prepared initially; didn't they learn anything from Katrina?  At WMHS, we work very hard to learn from others, as well as ourselves, after crises and disasters.  We strive to make sure that we take the Home Depot approach rather than the approach of government.

I am thankful that life is beginning to be restored to somewhat normalcy in the NJ / NY area and hope that after this disaster, our government will "go to school" on the experience.