The following article from the New York Times Trump Looks to Avoid Casting Blame in Texas Flood as Democrats Question Cuts got me thinking about who is to be blamed. Or, more specifically, who to blame for what aspect of the disaster that has now killed over 100 people in Texas? In general, I’d have to say that the Pottery Barn rule applies to disasters. If you break it, you own it. If it happens on your watch as an elected official or emergency manager, you own it…it is your snowstorm, your flood, your earthquake, your hurricane, your power outage, your hazardous materials spill, etc.
Let’s review in more detail who might be “responsible” for the deaths that occurred:
Was the storm(s) that developed detected in a timely manner? The National Weather Service (NWS) has this responsibility
Did the NWS coordinate with state and local emergency management agencies in anticipation of the storms and flooding? Was there time to do so?
Did the NWS issue both flood watches and warnings in a timely manner once they understood the severity of the rainfall and potential flooding?
Did State and Local emergency management act upon those warnings and use electronic systems, e.g. Emergency Alert System, IPAWS, etc. to amplify the NWS warnings?
Is there instrumentation already installed on the rivers in question to better detect flooding and assist in issuing warnings…a local government responsibility and potentially the state if they do provide funding previously for such systems?
If there were no systems, why were they never funded and who decided that they should not be funded because of other priorities?
Were the systems that were installed fully operational and have an ability to send data to agencies indicating the status of flood waters?
What efforts, if any, were made by local first responder agencies to physically warn residents, campers and recreational facilities of the impending flood?
What policies have been implemented at the federal level that have helped or might have hindered the ability of the above measures to be effective
Now, we could try to go into the disaster response aspect of this disaster, but when thinking about the deaths, rescues are helpful, but likely many of the 100 who died, died early in the storm and subsequent flooding.
There is no single person or entity to blame for a disaster. “Usually” there is a combination of errors and mistakes that happen well before a disaster and in executing the warning of an event like this one. As someone once told me, “When you point the finger, look at your hand. There are three fingers pointing back at you.”
