People who have never experienced a disaster go into a denial. It's a bit like cars and accidents -- the mindset develops: It couldn't possibly happen to me.
That denial often means those are unprepared for the
speed of a disaster occurring. Why do you think so many people are killed when disasters happen? There were many people who refused to leave their residences in Hurricane Katrina, and suffered the ultimate consequence. How many people are building on the faults on the American West Coast, in the supposed full knowledge that a major earthquake is inevitable? Surely now is the time to "evacuate" those at-risk areas.
I accept the point about evacuating one, two or three days before the predicted occurrence of a disaster such as a hurricane. It is the issue that authorities here are grappling with at present. But it also amounts to the need for an adequate evacuation plan to avoid gridlock situations, and for authorities to actually know how to implement that plan, and to know what they are doing under pressure.
The Royal Commission (a judicial inquiry with evidence taken under oath) into the February fires here is trying to identify many of the problems, and they seem to sheet home to the authorities' failure to have an adequate management structure in place, and a discernable reluctance to for them take responsibility for forcing evacuations, even when the law provided for them.
Of course, the problem we now face is that, having had such a huge disaster occur in February, are we heading towards the "Cry Wolf" scenario, where gunshy authorities proclaim a high fire danger when the temps get above 25 deg C, yet the vegetation is still wet from last week's rainfall. It may mean that people will ignore the warnings after the first two or three false alarms, to their peril.
The issues of disaster management certainly are monumental because of the public interest issues that are involved.
My "story" is here, although the link has not been publicly available until now and it is based on the emails Machka and I exchanged up to and after I left the scene:
www.cycling-adventurer.net/bushfires/index.html
And yes, I know there is glitch with the pictures down the right side, and the picture gallery link doesn't work... I haven't been to the page for around six months...