The preparation, Prediction and Response to Hurricane Jeanne

Prediction

In Florida, people were tired of false alarms and unnecessary Hurricane warnings, many people decided to stay put when they heard Jeanne was approaching, whereas in Haiti, many people didn't even hear about the Hurricane until it was in clear view.

Response

The impact of the Hurricane in Florida cost 7 billion US dollars worth of damage but with only 3 direct deaths, whereas Haiti lost everything of value including 3006+ lives. In relative terms 7 billion is a small amount of money. Florida had the money to invest into their state therefore could save lives and from the lessons learned this time they will plan for future hurricanes by increasing the public shelters, improving roads for evacuation, looking at planning laws. By putting theses structures into place they could claim this back by raising the amount of income tax that each resident paid. If you compare this to Haiti where wages are very low, the government do not have the money to invest in education and without education the wages will remain low unless some companies from other richer countries invest money in the people to educate and therefore increase salary and so on. This is well demonstrated by two quotes given by a resident in Florida and one in Haiti

The resident response from Florida was "This time we've got tons and tons of candles and batteries. I've got hurricane lamps and I'm getting a generator and a chainsaw" - Mr Wentrel, Retiree to Florida from North U.S.A. This quote tells us that the people of Florida have learnt from their mistakes and are reducing the risk of greater damage for the next hurricane. Compare this to a quote made a resident of Haiti, Jaqueline Orassin; "We don't know if the water is good... but if we don't cook anything, my children are going to die." This statement shows how helpless and hopeless this mother feels and is a reflection on how well the two different places are coping with the disaster. The residents of Haiti did not have the education to have higher paid jobs and be financially able to purchase the 'candles and the batteries' that Mr Wentrel in Florida could afford.

In my opinion, Hurricane Jeanne had the worst impact in Haiti because many lives were lost and it can easily happen again because the people of Haiti were not given enough help; the people of Florida were given the help in advance for example numerous evacuation shelters were set up but they chose stay where they were therefore put themselves at risk.

In the west palm beach area there were shelter spots for 27,000 people, but only 11,000 had evacuated by mid-afternoon. COMPARE TO HAITI!

The six people that died have all been vaguely identified. COMPARE TO HAITI.