Disaster Forecasting System for SA

I would hope it doesnt rest with the communications department... What if they are capped??? :D
 
Another gravy train.

jontyB said:
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_1980031,00.html

So does this mean that the responsibility of disaster management in the event of a Tsunami no longer rests with the Communications Department?
Click to expand...

There is no way anyone would have been able to predict a surface atmospheric disaster 3- 5 days in advance. Whoever sold that plan to the suckers knew his audience was not technological literate. You can possibly expect a Tsunami only after an earthquake. That only leaves you about 60 minutes forewarning for the nearest islands. Atmospheric conditions happen in a few minutes and even seconds.

This entire disaster forecast centre is just a lot of bull. What is going into this centre? Ghosts. If the Weather Bureau cannot even predict this kind of occurrence who are these con artists?

I think I smell a Zuma/Shaick plot.
 
Mother Nature is a bitch.

But the answer is probably found in how humanity is progressing in it's social responsibility towards one another.

To some extent we are very fortunate in that the environment around us does not bite us particulary hard particularly often. But we do have a nasty habit of putting ourselves in harm's way. Think about the heavy rains we had during summer in Gauteng - all of the informal settlements alongside the Jukskei and other 'rivers' were at threat. And it is a pretty hopeless task trying to get the people to move. Unless that danger is staring you in the face right there and then you say stuff it and start erecting your tin hut. And it rains. Now we have to put the lives of the emergency personnel at risk to rescue those peeps.

So people being people will build where they can - it's about survival. And EMS crew will do their thing too. But if we could warn people to get out the way all we put at risk are material things, not the lives. And that is one step forward. If it isn't, you're putting a price on a human life.

It somehow links into those numbers shown on the weather bulletins - 30% chance of rain. It doesn't mean that there is a 30% chance of rain - it means that in 30% of the times when these conditions existed in the past it has rained. We have the body of stats - hopefully we can turn it into something useful.

Just to share some of the thinking regarding disasters. Prevention is better than cure. The initial stages of a disaster are about preventing any further loss of human life. And when you are recovering it really is more about the rebuilding than how you got into the dwang in the first place.

I spoke to a woman who was in the floods in Moz a few years ago. She told me about the silver ribbon than came into the village in the middle of the night and how they ran looking for higher ground. That silver ribbon was the early warning of the rage that was on its way. Clearly she survived, but not her home.
 
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