Elaine Commissiong, Contributor
An elderly woman lays on a stretcher as her relatives try to get medical help for her near the damaged New Orleans Superdome August 31. Authorities have begun evacuating thousands from the damaged Superdome where living conditions have worsened since Hurricane Katrina struck on August 29. - REUTERS
THE IRE of people in pain, hunger, and thirst is easy to understand. So too are the unabashed expressions of grief and disgust and a desolate lack of hope, as expressed by the people of New Orleans which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina and the attendant floods that followed. The graphic pictures of what has been described as a 'crisis of biblical proportions'; the poignant images of suffering, the pervasive litter and filth, the dead bodies bereft of all dignity, echo silent screams for help, that reverberate beyond the United States borders to the countries of the world.
The calls for help have a history. They first came in 1927, in reportedly the first significant News Orleans flood of recent memory to take lives. In 1965, sixty one people died when water again covered the former marsh lands on which the city lies. The cry became somewhat muted in 1996, when the hurricane that year took six lives. Then complacency set in and the danger of floods and hurricanes became a distant dream.
Yet, although scientists predicted possible scenarios of apocalyptic doom, each year the people of New Orleans rolled the dice of chance and turned a deaf ear to dire warnings of disasters to come. Then in August 2005, Hurricane Katrina came, creating devastating images of chaos and destruction, in New Orleans, other Gulf Coast cities, and neighbouring towns; heralding a breakdown of law and order, and the formal communication that normally characterises civilised living.
THE MESSAGE
The modern theory of transactional communication recognises the need for a sender of the message for whom the audience has respect and empathy. It also anticipates the appropriate use of a channel that is compatible with the message being sent. The context of the message shapes its understanding as it is delivered to the receiver. Feedback, critical to the success of the process, indicates that the message has been received, interpreted and understood as intended. Only then, does true communication take place.
Disasters like Katrina occur in a context of an emergency, a need for quick action that cuts across red tape and bureaucracy. Typically, in the scenario of a hurricane and persistent floods, prime formal communication channels such as cellular phones and especially landlines
become inoperable and the storm-caused chaos and confusion become immensely magnified.
Fuelled by desperate need, upwelling fear, a dramatically compromised environment, and a perceived vacuum of leadership, the calls for help become strident, then gradually grow muted, as all hope seems lost.
Feedback, the desired response of timely rescue, food, water, and shelter does not come in keeping with the urgency of the moment. So, babies, the elderly, the infirm; weakened and frustrated by the seeming futility of it all, are the first to surrender to the long wait.
Yet help reportedly waits just out of reach -- the call to release the desired response remains apparently unheard.
So, anarchy threatens, as shots ring out into the night sky. Buildings burn unrestrained. While some peacekeepers apparently abandon their posts; others valiantly fight on, as roles become reversed and they become the hunted.
The survivors huddled in dank and humid shelters bear faces lean with hunger and water-deprived bodies unashamedly exposed. The dead and dying juxtaposed, tell their own story of help denied.
Huddled on roofs as storm waters lap the eves of homes and apartment buildings; banners made from sheets become the communication medium of choice. Voices weakened by hunger call out to the unseen; "What part of 'Help!' didn't you understand?"
Five days later, when feedback finally comes with the desired welcome relief and rescue (too late for too many,) there are tales of communication channels blocked; by bureaucracy, by messages misunderstood or distorted by distance, by lack of experience, or by leadership flawed or irresponsible; or simply by plans not made.
The media, for posterity, records the astonishing and unbelievable story for the entire world to see.
It's the story of communication challenged and compromised, in a crisis of biblical proportions.
Elaine Commissiong is the Chairman and Executive Director of CARA LTD - a Marketing Communications Agency. Email: cara@kasnet.com.
