Cyclone off the East Coast, run, run, run…

While Indians stand and perish in hundreds and thousands, Americans flee for their lives. This despite the more well-entrenched infrastructure andwell-established disaster relief measures. Experts say the difference in approach is understandable. For coastal Indians, the fleeing option is limited by economic compulsions and lack of both private means and state support. Even when the state machinery provides advance warnings, there is a tendency to try and stick it out. There is also the Indian habit of what some would call “beating the red light syndrome” — you know the light has turned but you still want to squeeze past.

In some ways, the US is far more susceptible to cyclones than India is. Each year, on average, 10 major tropical storms (of which six become hurricanes) develop over the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, or Gulf of Mexico. Many of these storms remain over the ocean. However, an average of five hurricanes strike the United States coastline every three years. Of these five, two will be major hurricanes, which are storms of category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which corresponds to hurricanes with winds at or above 111miles per hour. But the advance preparedness in the US happens on, to flog the cliche, a war footing.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) Tropical Prediction Center and National Weather Service (NWS) field offices team up with other federal, state, and local agencies; rescue and relief organisations; the private sector; and the news media in a huge warning and preparedness effort. For days before, during, and after the disaster the airways are flooded with warnings, advise, and suggestions.

Needless to say, the American advisories to face natural disaster emergencies are more detailed and thoughtful — hardly the stuff one can overnight educate a fisherman from Ganjam with. For eg. Continue listening regularly to a NOAA Weather Radio or local radio or television stations for updated information. Prepare your property for high wind. Fill your car’s gas tank. Stock up on prescription medications.

In fact, the overall weather awareness and response is vastly different in the twosocieties given the priorities and compulsions of the people. Weather watch has become a growing industry and a pastime in the US. The country has a full time Weather Channel devoted to tracking weather patters all over the country.

Cable networks and network television employ an array or experts and the most sophisticated equipment to predict everything from national weather patterns to minor suburban squalls. During Floyd, the Weather Channel broke its record for viewers with 2.5 million households tuning in, on a single day. It’s website (weather.com) logged 23 million visits as the storm passed Florida. In fact, with more than half of American home wired to the Internet, that medium too has become a major source for weather watch.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration site (noaa.gov) received about three million visits a day during Floyd. The national Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) hosts a superb site (fema.gov receives 20 million hits a month) that is a one-stopreference to all emergencies and disasters — and a must see for Indian government officials planning disaster management.

In fact, American advances in studying weather patterns benefitting several other Pacific countries — and New Delhi may well consider this line of cooperation as it draws up the agenda for Indo-US ties into the next decade.

The NOAA’s National Weather Service Hurricane Center in San Francisco covers the eastern Pacific: The Weather forecasting office in Hawaii covers the central Pacific; the Joint US Navy-Air Force Typhoon Warning System in Guam covers the western Pacific. Americans are so fixated with disasters, both natural and manmade, that there have been dozens of movies on earthquakes, volcanos, meteor showers, tsunamis and comet strikes. Hollywood is current awash with more windy and watery disasters. The 1996 hit Twister, about tornados in the mid-west was a runaway hit. On the sets right now, The Perfect Storm, based on the 1997 best seller by Sebastian Junger about adeadly Northeaster.

Did you know?

When winds of tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean and the north-east Pacific, reach velocities of hurricane force (64 knots, 73 mph, 118Km/hr, Beauford 12), then these tropical cyclones are called hurricanes. In the Indian Ocean and in the seas around Australia, hurricanes are called "cyclones". In the West Pacific, they are called "typhoons".