Why Counting The Number Of Dead After A Hurricane

canada goose store President Donald Trump’s Thursday tweet denying the new official death toll from Hurricane Maria was not only offensive and hurtful to Puerto Ricans who suffered Canada Goose sale through the storm it was also potentially dangerous. Denying the Canada Goose online full extent of the storm’s damage prevents canada goose black friday sale the country from learning much needed lessons canada goose clearance to prevent future fatalities, as one expert noted. canada goose store

In one tweet, Trump accused Democrats of inflating the figure to make him “look bad.”

Scott Knowles, a professor and disaster historian at Drexel University in Philadelphia, said Trump’s denial is a political move that undermines the full impact of not just Maria but of disasters in canadian goose jacket general and the way we account for them.

“This is inherently political, because canada goose the scale of the disaster will determine what lessons we learn from it,” Knowles told HuffPost on Friday, noting such lessons include how the government prepares for and manages future disasters and how much it spends on doing so.

Canada Goose sale He noted that it is often the most vulnerable populations who are disproportionately hurt after a disaster older people in nursing homes that lose power and die of heat exposure, or patients who can’t access care amid a canada goose store blackout, or low income families who can’t afford to evacuate and then can’t reach safety as debris blocks their exit. Counting them matters. canada goose outlet Canada Goose sale

Canada Goose Jackets “Getting these more inclusive and accurate death counts correct gives us a clear picture that disasters punch down,” he said. andclaimed canada goose uk black friday at least five cheap Canada Goose lives Trump doubled down on Twitter in his denials of Maria’s death toll. Canada Goose Jackets

Here’s more from Knowles on why every death after a disaster needs to be counted.

Canada Goose Parka This interview has been edited for length and clarity. But it gets murky quickly. Canada Goose Parka

A lot has to do with when do you draw the timeline. When do you say we’ve stopped counting now? As we’ve seen in the court of public opinion, there’s not necessarily consensus.

canada goose coats on sale But in the scientific and medical communities, are there established, agreed upon guidelines? canada goose coats on sale

Yes, absolutely. But then you have the issue of when you draw the curtain on a study.

buy canada goose jacket cheap In very good faith, people want to know the scale of a disaster quickly how many people died? If you’re reporting a house fire or an airline crash, that can be reported quickly and clearly. It becomes trickier in a “slow” disaster toxic exposure, PTSD or suicides that come later. So you get into a tricky area canada goose uk shop of how long we leave the window open. buy canada goose jacket cheap

canada goose deals What’s an example of an instance where a long window was needed to count deaths? canada goose deals

How many people died in Sept. 11? The first count, done by emergency responders uk canada goose outlet and deaths certified by a coroner or medical examiner’s office, that’s important. It says that day, or in a week or month, how many died.

canada goose coats But there’s also consensus now and you can go to the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] guidelines that deaths from health exposures or conditions that were made worse, which exceed what you would expect in a time and a place, those are attributable as well. canada goose coats

Canada Goose online After Sept. 11, the CDC worked to set up a World Trade Center health registry. That takes a much longer view of health effects attributing deaths for Sept. 11 toxic exposure, particularly for firefighters. That, to me, are the guidelines we should be looking at. Canada Goose online

canada goose clearance It forces us to think of disasters as not something that just happens and is canada goose clearance sale over but is an ongoing process. canada goose clearance

cheap Canada Goose Scientists and medical professionals will do their count but it’s political when elected officials try to spin those numbers and frame it in a way to show they’ve done their job well. cheap Canada Goose

canadian goose jacket How does a death count, established by medical professionals, become political? canadian goose jacket

canada goose So scientists and medical professionals will do their count but it’s political when elected officials try to spin those numbers and frame it in a way to show they’ve done their job well. canada goose

Trump’s attitude Canada Goose Parka demonstrates the problem so clearly: Usually you don’t see a politician saying, “Nope, this is the number I saw, and anything else is a lie.” We didn’t see George Bush in 2007 saying, “I don’t like that firemen who got sick [in the aftermath of 9/11] get counted Canada Goose Coats On Sale because, damn it, I did a great job.” That’s abhorrent and political malfeasance.

How does the number of deaths in one disaster affect planning?

Canada Goose Outlet If Maria was bad but only buy canada goose jacket 16 people died, then people would say, “It was terrible, but, at the end, it wasn’t that canada goose coats bad, so should we really spend all that money on [the Federal Emergency Management Agency]?” Canada Goose Outlet

That number becomes a stand in for the degree to which we take [it] seriously that’s what’s distressing to me.

The Canada Goose Outlet single most important thing is to understand that vulnerable populations suffer the most in disaster. If you just do a strict count of people who died in storm surge flooding, that gives you a number it might be people who didn’t evacuate or drowned trying drive off. If you extend out a bit, to include people who died, let’s say, because power went off and they require power for a ventilator, you begin to see buy canada goose jacket cheap the picture of vulnerable populations emerge.

buy canada goose jacket They died in the nursing home because canada goose coats on sale power went out and they died of heat exposure. Or they needed surgery they couldn’t http://www.canadagoosejacketoutlett.com get. They needed dialysis. There were terrible stories from Puerto Rico of people who couldn’t travel because roads were closed. Getting these Canada Goose Online more inclusive and accurate death counts correct gives us a clear picture that disasters punch down: They disproportionately affect people in low income communities, people with poor health buy canada goose jacket.