The self-sufficient individual and bureaucracy

In 1984, northern New Jersey experienced some of the worse flooding the area had ever seen. At the time, I was a Private First Class in the NJ Army National Guard. I was called up on state disaster orders, and spent about 5 days as part of a team evacuating people from their homes.

It was a surreal experience, sitting in the passenger seat of a 5 ton truck as we drove on what we hoped were streets. I had two jobs while the sergeant drove, one was to help him identify where the road hopefully was, and to keep an eye on the floor of the truck to monitor how much water was coming into the floor drain holes. Yes, the water was coming into the cab through the floor drain holes.

At one point in Pequannock Township, the wake from our truck blew out several store windows. I bet that wasn't something the store owner ever expected to happen. Many of the visuals are etched clearly into my memory. An old man weeping, and saying "I lost everything" as we helped him into the back of the truck from a rescue boat. A couple waving from their window yelling for rescue. A flat bottomed rescue boat loaded with people, one holding a cat in her arms. The cat freaked out and tried to jump. The woman stood up to control the cat. The boat broached, filled with water, and dumped everyone and their possessions into the water. I still see that cat fighting to swim as the current swirled it away along with all of the luggage.

At the time, I was frustrated. People had been warned the waters were going to rise, yet many stayed behind in their homes. Some had to be rescued in dangerous conditions. Our lives were put in jeopardy from the poor choices the residents made. At least that was how I felt then.

As I grew older and gained perspective, I realized that these people were protecting their property. Like the old man who was weeping, everything most of these people had was in their home. What would you take with you if you had to leave?

I thought of this past experience as I read Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers. This book is about a Syrian born contractor named Zeitoun, married to an American woman, with four children and a thriving business.

As Hurricane Katrina approached New Orleans, Zeitoun's wife and four children left to stay with friends. Zeitoun stayed behind to protect their home, the several rental properties they owned, and their business. The author wrote the book from the perspective of Zeitoun, and from the perspective of Zeitoun's wife. Then he went and found many of the people who were in the story to get their accounts of what happened, and the pertinent facts were confirmed by the interviews.

In a nutshell, Zeitoun spent his days after the levees broke paddling his canoe around the neighborhood. He fed abandoned dogs, coordinated rescues for neighbors who stayed behind and had run out of food and water, and checked on his properties. In his travels, he tried several times to flag down the heavily armed "rescuers" who were buzzing around the city in boats. They didn't stop to see what he wanted or needed. According to his account, at one point, he headed to a hospital, and armed National Guard soldiers aimed rifles at him, and warned him off.

Zeitoun and three other neighbors were meeting on a daily basis to share stories of the people they had assisted, and to coordinate the use of one of the guy's boats for rescuing neighbors who had run out of water or patience. The home they met at was a rental owned by Zeitoun, and one of the men was his tenant. Each day Zeitoun would call his wife to provide an update. About 8 days after the levee broke, armed soldiers entered the home, and without any explanation, hauled the four of them off. Two of them were of Syrian descent, and the other two were your typical Americans. Zeitoun and his three friends were held for 28 days without the benefit of legal counsel, or a phone call, and for about a week without any protection from the elements.

I don't want to give too much of the story away, but it was amazing to Zeitoun how quickly FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security could construct wire confinement areas, and all of the infrastructure to cage people in such a short time. The government was also able to lease jail space, establish transportation routes, and process detainees. Yet the feds never thought to focus these resources on saving people in the flooded areas, or on moving supplies to the stadiums where they told people to evacuate to.

I am in no way removing any culpability on the part of the local and state government in what I am writing here. It has been almost 6 years, and residents are still waiting for someone else to rebuild their homes for them. But we'll leave this topic for another time.

This book was a chilling read. I always think that when the chips fall, our fellow citizens are the people wearing the uniforms. Our neighbors will have empathy, and be the people coordinating our rescue and relief in an emergency. Just as it was in 1984 when we went into the neighborhoods we were familiar with to rescue our neighbors. After reading this book, I lost much of my confidence that citizens would be anything more than objects to be dealt with by a cold and bureaucratic government.

I have been pondering what right the government has to forcibly remove someone from their home, if the residents are staying in it willfully. One of the book genres I like, are ones of rescues on the seas, as well as pretty much any story about humans against the elements. This led me to think about the many stories I read, and some of the aspects of rescues.

In the times before EPIRBs and satellite communications, when someone got in trouble, the odds were against their survival if they couldn't fend for themselves. Being lost for months at sea was not uncommon, and often times people would just turn up months after they were given up for dead. Even back in the old days, if a rescuer offered assistance, and the person in trouble declined, they did this at their own peril. Rescuers will not return for a second attempt.

Technology has provided the ability for people to call for help from anywhere on the planet. In fact, you can purchase a personal emergency locator beacon to take hiking with you, just in case you get lost in the woods and need to have a helicopter come save you. Is your life worth $370? I would probably die from the humiliation of getting lost in the woods.

Several of the books, including Perfect Storm, outlined how the Coast Guard would offer rescue, and if the people on the vessel refused assistance, the Coast Guard would let the vessel captain know that if they refuse now, they would not return later. The captain of the vessel would have to put on his big boy pants, and make the decision right away, and live with the consequences of the decision. Or in some cases, die with the decision.

So how should the policy differ in the case of a flood? If a citizen decides to stay behind, isn't it their choice? But if the choice is made to stay, they need to be prepared to face the consequences, if a later rescue would jeopardize the lives of the rescuers. Some may argue that allowing people behind allows for the opportunity to loot. Would you loot if you were left behind? I wouldn't. So why should we assume anyone else would loot?

As I thought about the story, I began to see the difference in why the response to Hurricane Katrina was so impersonal, and the response to the floods in New Jersey were much more personal. When the federal government declares an area a disaster, FEMA steps in, and takes over all... yes, all agencies and efforts. This bureaucracy assumes command of all of the local first responders (like your local police), the state relief agencies, all public transportation facilities, and coordinates with the local prisons to deal with the criminals they expect to arrest. They generally have little or no ties to the victims, other than they are all "items" that must be put in their proper place.

This dawned on me as I thought of my time in the National Guard later in my career. I was serving in a unit that ran simulations for state and federal agencies to train them in how to deal with disasters. The computer spit out reports of victims, displaced people, food shipments, disasters, crime, and all of the bad stuff that can possibly happen in the aftermath of a disaster. This is what these people became accustomed to, and they were trained to not just be ready, but to expect the worst.

Having to transport, feed, house, safeguard, and protect citizens became a theoretical exercise. The humanness of the victims was lost in the bits of data, and paper printouts of the simulation. When all you know how to use is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. I began to see how jails were built before people were fed. Few of the feds left the command centers, and all of their information probably came from network news, which of course only reported the crime.

So what is the take-away from all of this? Read this book, and then be prepared to fend for yourself in the case of an emergency - the government responds in days when hours count. Have food and water on hand to last you and your family a week. Designate an easily identifiable landmark well outside of the area where you live as a rendezvous point in case you are separated from your family during an emergency. Have a plan for how to deal with pets, and keep a bail out bag handy. The bailout bag should contain a few basic items of clothes, and some of the basic necessities. Keep a copy of any prescriptions in it. And don't panic. Being prepared for the bad stuff should make you calmer, not more nervous.