Hurricane Sandy

Some time has now passed since October 29th, when Hurricane Sandy caused so much devastation on the East Coast and in the Caribbean, but the impact has certainly not ended for those who lost their homes or family members.  The news of this disaster hit me particularly hard not just because we had friends living through the disaster, not just because I work in public health, but because I had studied and written an article about this very issue, pointing out that people were not prepared for a hurricane in New York City.

The article I wrote with Dr. Zarcadoolas was published in the Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.  (Click here for the full article.)  To gather research, I walked around the streets of Harlem showing individuals a GIS (Geographic Information System) map and interviewing them to see if they could understand the map.  The map was created by NYC's Office of Emergency Management and was supposed to inform people if they lived in a hurricane evacuation zone and if so, where the nearest evacuation center was to their home.  But no one could understand the map.

Memories of my interviews flooded back into my mind when I heard of this superstorm.  The first response I usually received from people during my research was, "We don't get hurricanes in New York City.  Why would we need a map?"  When I asked people what they would do if they heard that a hurricane was coming, I had strange responses like two that said they would hide in their bathtubs.  And then there was the map.  New Yorkers are used to reading maps, but they all involve the subway.  Instead of taking advantage of this familiarity, the subway lines were not standard and there were other markers that looked to some like subway stops throwing them off.  Many of the people couldn't even find their own street on the map, let alone know if they were in a danger zone.

The map seemed manageable to figure out for those with high education who are used to looking at complex maps.  But 46% of East Harlem adults have not graduated high school.  More than half of those with low education could not even find their own home on the map.  In the case of a hurricane warning in Harlem, even with a map in hand, 82% of those with low education would not be able to find the hurricane evacuation center and 48% of those with high education wouldn't be able to find it either.

When the news of the hurricane came to us, I thought of and prayed for these people.  I also came across this video that I found very powerful about the hurricane clean-up being done by groups of Mormon Helping Hands.  Take a look at it if you have a chance.  A big thank you to all of my friends that were part of the effort being documented here and who still continue to do volunteer work there.