Lessons from Japan One Month Later
Though the television coverage has slowed since the Japan earthquake and tsunami, even as Japan deals with ongoing and sometimes-huge aftershocks, it continues to amaze me how much devastation occurred and how people continue to struggle for basic sustenance. The recovery in Japan will probably take decades.
Though being a fatalist isn't popular because our nature is to seek the positive, there are lessons to learn from Japan that broadcasters need to consider. Though Japan has never assumed it was out of harm's way from earthquakes, and though experts had predicted for decades that "the big one" would someday come, human nature always wants to believe that day is far off in the future and may never come at all. No one expected the magnitude 9.0 earthquake that hit one month ago today, the massive tsunami that followed, and the damage and resulting radiation pollution from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
No area of our country is immune to natural disaster, and many of our cities, including some in the inland Midwest, are built on fault lines that experts have said for decades could eventually become active. And of course, many of our largest population centers are in coastal cities or in earthquake zones.
Watching coverage from Japan, we see cities where the entire infrastructure has been crushed. No water, no sewage treatment, no access roads for food delivery, and no sources of sustenance. Though helicopters are dropping in care packages, one Japanese citizen said, "The government is trying to provide supplies by air, bringing in food and medicine, but it's like dropping a little salt into the ocean."
As broadcasters, we have to assume that an equally horrific disaster can and will happen in our community and that our radio stations may be the only source of information and communications for the people in our towns. Our ability to survive and stay nourished so we can continue broadcasting will depend on how well prepared we are.
Years ago, I owned a radio station in Salt Lake City, and our transmitter was atop a mountain that was accessible only by snowmobile in the winter, and often impossible to reach at all. My staff mocked me when I stocked the transmitter building with a week's worth of long-term survival food, until the day our chief engineer got stuck in the building for two days after a storm came in while he was doing routine maintenance. The power went down, and he had to endure the loud clanking and heat of the diesel generator in the building for two days. I was vindicated, but more importantly, the food stored at the site helped save his life.
Radio stations should assume they will be the lifeline for their communities. There should be systems in place, in advance, to communicate with local authorities, ham radio operators, and anyone who can get to others and communicate back to you, under the worst conditions, with no power, no food or water. How long will your generator last without fuel? How long can your staff broadcast, assuming no one can get to them for a week or two?
You should always assume:
- Anything that can happen will happen.
- Things will happen when least expected and will be worse than predicted.
- The best preparation is never adequate.
- Wishful thinking does not delay events or make survival possible.
Every radio station and every transmission facility needs to store enough fuel, food, and water to last a staff of people (and their families) for at least two weeks. Though we assume things will get better within a week or two, that has not proven to be true in Japan, where there are still people starving a month later.
I also think it would be good to have an annual meeting of all local radio stations and local community officials/ham radio operators to coordinate how stations can play a role in a worst-case scenario.
Most of us have never lived through a disaster and we don't expect to. Neither did stations in New Orleans, and they can share stories about how they could have been better prepared when Hurricane Katrina hit.
Disaster comes in forms we never expect, and you can never be prepared enough. But lives depend on radio, and it's important to think through the worst-case scenarios for your community and do your best to be ready.
Homeland security has designated broadcasters as first responders, on the same level as hospitals and police stations in that first responders have the top prority in getting the power back on after a disaster. You're right that every station should have a transmitter emergency power system, but stations should also have a low power portable transmitter and antenna to quickly get back on the air if the transmitter or antenna is destroyed during a disaster.
Posted by: Robert Jackson | April 15, 2011 at 10:15 AM