How more finger pointing could lead to better disaster preparedness

Finger pointing in the wake of devastating storms such as Hurricane Irma won't fix the damage, but a Halifax-based expert in disaster preparedness says more of it could prevent similar catastrophes.

Hurricane Irma shattered parts of the Caribbean and Florida this weekend, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century.

But just because it was unprecedented doesn't mean it should have been unexpected, according to Kevin Quigley, who studies planning and response to disasters as director at MacEachen Institute for Public Policy and Governance at Dalhousie University.

"We don't necessarily think about the decision-making that happened before that perhaps put these communities in a vulnerable place in the first place," he told CBC's Information Morning.

'Positive community spin'

He said in the wake of natural disasters, media coverage often flatters the emergency response and focuses on heroic rescues and people rallying together.   

"There's a positive community spin that comes from it. That we came together, we fought this thing," he said. 

There's less discussion of how authorities prepared for and responded to the crisis, or the ways in which a city layout may have contributed to the disaster, he said. 

By contrast, public reaction is dramatically different to industrial disasters, which he said are devastating but kill fewer people and cost less than natural ones. 

"Industrial failures tend to generate a sort of ruthless hunt for accountability where we narrow in on a particular person, and we see more action in the courts following industrial failures," Quigley said.

Learning from public inquiries

He said cases such as the mall collapse in Elliott Lake, Ont., prompted a public inquiry. But nothing similar followed Hurricane Juan, for instance, which was responsible for eight deaths and $100 million in damage after it slammed into Atlantic Canada in 2003. 

While he doesn't dispute that many people learned tough lessons from Juan, Quigley said public inquiries allow for key players to talk about how to improve their responses, and the reports that follow can hold them accountable for doing that.

In the case of a natural disaster such as the severe flooding in southern Alberta in 2013, he said the government spent millions assisting homeowners that didn't have insurance. 

He said policies should be developed in advance and in response to past disasters. For instance, higher insurance rates for people who build in flood zones, so government isn't on the hook.

"It's important that there's more community engagement, more transparency around what we're learning and that we're holding agencies to account in a reasonable way so that we know that should an event occur they've prepared, as best they could," he said.