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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI Was a Military COVID Planner. Trust Me: Texas Is in Deep, Deep Trouble
https://www.thedailybeast.com/i-was-a-military-covid-planner-trust-me-texas-is-in-deep-deep-troubleLike many of my fellow Texans, I was shocked when Senator Ted Cruz was recently spotted not wearing a mask on a flight from Dallas to Houston as COVID-19 cases were spiking across the state. Pandemic petulance is pretty on brand for the junior senator, but his latest fit of obstinacy comes at a particularly dangerous time: hurricane season.
This is a personal issue for me. Up until my recent retirement from the Army, I served as a COVID-19 crisis planner at NORTHCOM in Colorado Springs. I was part of the team managing this crisis since January, when we first started evacuating U.S. citizens out of China. Further, my active duty military career was bifurcated by a stint in the Army Reserves. During that time, I worked in Emergency Management at the state and local level in Texas. I was in the Texas Emergency Operations Center on Sept. 11, and Ive worked disasters all over, including several hurricanes.
And a hurricane in the middle of a pandemic was very much on our minds at NORTHCOM. We started calling it the COVICANE. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is calling for an above-average Atlantic Hurricane Season this year with a possibility of 19 named storms. We based some of our planning off Hurricane Harvey, which struck Cruzs hometown of Houston in 2017. Typically, the National Guard and some active duty forces respond to hurricanes to provide things like search and rescue, engineering, and medical support. Rooftop helicopter rescues make for dramatic footage, but the truth is that the military does not do the bulk of the work. Instead, volunteer organizations like the Red Cross lead the effort by managing shelters, feeding the hungry, and processing displaced families. My team looked at how COVID-19 might impact volunteers. What we found was scary.
*snip*
Sienna86
(2,149 posts)August And September will be interesting no doubt.
fleur-de-lisa
(14,624 posts)malaise
(268,930 posts)If volunteers arent available or if they get sick, the hard work of disaster response would fall on to the only other available pool of manpower: the military. This is problematic in its own way. If a COVICANE response stretches a state National Guard to the breaking point, active duty forces could be deployed to help. The Army only keeps a few active units on standby for what is known as the Defense Support to Civil Authorities mission.
Hekate
(90,644 posts)CRK7376
(2,199 posts)I beat you out the door by 5 years my friend. Let me guess, you are still working at an EOC somewhere, still helping those hurt by disasters. Keep up the good fight, I too continued serving others. I teach in a Title 1 high school.
Nevilledog
(51,080 posts)herding cats
(19,564 posts)Be it fires, flooding, tornadoes or hurricanes. Be wary. This could go bad extremely fast for any of us.
Nevilledog
(51,080 posts)I'd be really nervous being in a tornado or hurricane zone.
herding cats
(19,564 posts)At least hurricanes tend to dwindle to just river flooding before they reach me normally.
Fires are also an issue, but that one is kind of newish and tends to not be as big of an infrastructure issue yet. Their time will come, but it's not here yet, thankfully.
Nevilledog
(51,080 posts)No "It can't get worse", "It can only get better", "that can't happen here"...... None of that stuff allowed cuz I'm tired of being proven wrong...lol
Initech
(100,063 posts)crickets
(25,962 posts)There are clear cut examples of this behavior going on right now, nationwide, costing people their lives by the thousands. Why is no one stepping up? Not even the media. Why is no one stepping up to say the words out loud?
bucolic_frolic
(43,128 posts)They wouldn't believe the truth, so no harm in reassurance