Via Business Insider:
“When you have 8 million people in need, with roads that are damaged, infrastructure broken down, flooding everywhere, we can’t be there that fast. And we feel bad about that.”
RED CROSS: We Wish We Could’ve Gotten To The Hardest-Hit Sandy Victims Sooner – Business Insider
The real points:
- According to the UN, more than half of the world’s population lives in cities, and of that, 60% are exposed to at least one major natural disaster risk.
- According to Don Hinrichson, a consultant for the UN, “the overwhelming bulk of humanity is concentrated along or near coasts on just 10% of the earth’s land surface. As of 1998, over half the population of the planet — about 3.2 billion people — lives and works in a coastal strip just 200 kilometers wide (120 miles), while a full two-thirds, 4 billion, are found within 400 kilometers of a coast.”
This means we need to treat this kind of emergency management as a routine thing because there will be more to come.