How to step up in the face of disaster
-
0:03 - 0:06Newscaster: There's a large path of destruction here in town.
-
0:06 - 0:09... hit here pulling trees from the ground, shattering windows,
-
0:09 - 0:12taking the roofs off of homes.
-
0:12 - 0:14Caitria O'Neill: That was me
-
0:14 - 0:18in front of our house in Monson, Massachusetts last June.
-
0:18 - 0:21After an EF3 tornado ripped straight through our town
-
0:21 - 0:23and took parts of our roof off,
-
0:23 - 0:25I decided to stay in Massachusetts
-
0:25 - 0:27instead of pursuing the master's program
-
0:27 - 0:30I had moved my boxes home that afternoon for.
-
0:30 - 0:32Morgan O'Neill: So, on June 1st we weren't disaster experts,
-
0:32 - 0:35but on June 3rd we started faking it.
-
0:35 - 0:37This experience changed our lives.
-
0:37 - 0:39And now we're trying to change the experience.
-
0:39 - 0:41CO: So tornadoes don't happen in Massachusetts.
-
0:41 - 0:43And I was cleverly standing in the front yard
-
0:43 - 0:45when one came over the hill.
-
0:45 - 0:48After a lamppost flew by, my family and I sprinted into the basement.
-
0:48 - 0:51Trees were thrown against the house, the windows exploded.
-
0:51 - 0:53When we finally got out the back door,
-
0:53 - 0:55transformers were burning in the street.
-
0:55 - 0:57MO: So I was here in Boston.
-
0:57 - 0:59I'm a PhD student at MIT,
-
0:59 - 1:01and I happen to study atmospheric science.
-
1:01 - 1:03Actually it gets weirder.
-
1:03 - 1:06So I was in the museum of science at the time the tornado hit,
-
1:06 - 1:08playing with the tornado display.
-
1:08 - 1:10So I missed her call.
-
1:10 - 1:12So I get the call from Caitria, I hear the news,
-
1:12 - 1:14and I start tracking the radar online
-
1:14 - 1:17to call the family back when another supercell was forming in their area.
-
1:17 - 1:20And I drove home late that night with batteries and ice.
-
1:20 - 1:22We live across the street from an historic church
-
1:22 - 1:25that had lost its very iconic steeple in the storm.
-
1:25 - 1:27It had become a community gathering place overnight.
-
1:27 - 1:30The town hall and the police department had also suffered direct hits,
-
1:30 - 1:33and so people wanting to help or needing information
-
1:33 - 1:35went to the church.
-
1:35 - 1:37CO: We walked up to the church because we heard that they had hot meals,
-
1:37 - 1:39but when we arrived we found problems.
-
1:39 - 1:41There were a couple large, sweaty men with chainsaws
-
1:41 - 1:43standing in the center of the church,
-
1:43 - 1:45but nobody knew where to send them
-
1:45 - 1:47because no one knew the extent of the damage yet.
-
1:47 - 1:49And as we watched, they became frustrated and left
-
1:49 - 1:51to go find somebody to help on their own.
-
1:51 - 1:53MO: So we started organizing.
-
1:53 - 1:56Why? It had to be done. We found Pastor Bob
-
1:56 - 1:58and offered to give the response some infrastructure.
-
1:58 - 2:01And then armed with just two laptops and one AirCard,
-
2:01 - 2:07we built a recovery machine.
-
2:07 - 2:08(Applause)
-
2:08 - 2:09CO: That was a tornado,
-
2:09 - 2:12and everyone's heading to the church to drop things off and volunteer.
-
2:12 - 2:14MO: Everyone's donating clothing.
-
2:14 - 2:16We should really inventory the donations that are piling up here.
-
2:16 - 2:19CO: Yeah, and we need a hotline. Can you make a Google Voice number?
-
2:19 - 2:21MO: Yeah, sure. And we need to tell people what not to bring.
-
2:21 - 2:25I'll make a Facebook account. Can you print flyers for the neighborhoods?
-
2:25 - 2:27CO: Yeah, but we don't even know what houses are accepting help at this point.
-
2:27 - 2:29We need to canvas and send out volunteers.
-
2:29 - 2:31MO: We need to tell people what not to bring.
-
2:31 - 2:33Hey, there's a news truck. I'll tell them.
-
2:33 - 2:35CO: You got my number off the news?
-
2:35 - 2:37We don't need any more freezers.
-
2:37 - 2:40MO: The insurance won't cover it? You need a crew to tar your roof? CO: Six packs of juice boxes arriving in one hour?
-
2:40 - 2:42Together: Someone get me Post-its!
-
2:42 - 2:43(Laughter)
-
2:43 - 2:45CO: And then the rest of the community figured out
-
2:45 - 2:47that we had answers.
-
2:47 - 2:49MO: I can donate three water heaters,
-
2:49 - 2:50but someone needs to come pick them up.
-
2:50 - 2:52CO: My car is in my living room.
-
2:52 - 2:55MO: My boyscout troop would like to rebuild 12 mailboxes.
-
2:55 - 2:58CO: The puppy's missing, and insurance just doesn't cover the chimneys.
-
2:58 - 3:01MO: My church group of 50 would like housing and meals for a week
-
3:01 - 3:03while we repair properties.
-
3:03 - 3:05CO: You sent me to that place on Washington Street yesterday,
-
3:05 - 3:07and now I'm covered in poison ivy.
-
3:07 - 3:10So this is what filled our days.
-
3:10 - 3:12We had to learn how to answer questions quickly
-
3:12 - 3:15and to solve problems in about a minute or less,
-
3:15 - 3:17because otherwise something more urgent would come up,
-
3:17 - 3:18and it just wouldn't get done.
-
3:18 - 3:21MO: We didn't get our authority from the board of selectmen
-
3:21 - 3:24or the emergency management director or the United Way.
-
3:24 - 3:27We just started answering questions and making decisions
-
3:27 - 3:29because someone, anyone, had to.
-
3:29 - 3:32And why not me? I'm a campaign organizer.
-
3:32 - 3:33I'm good at Facebook.
-
3:33 - 3:34And there's two of me.
-
3:34 - 3:35(Laughter)
-
3:35 - 3:39CO: The point is, if there's a flood or a fire or a hurricane,
-
3:39 - 3:41you, or somebody like you,
-
3:41 - 3:43are going to step up and start organizing things.
-
3:43 - 3:46The other point is that it is hard.
-
3:46 - 3:49MO: Lying on the ground after another 17-hour day,
-
3:49 - 3:50Caitria and I would empty our pockets
-
3:50 - 3:53and try to place dozens of scraps of paper into context --
-
3:53 - 3:56all bits of information that had to be remembered and matched
-
3:56 - 3:57in order to help someone.
-
3:57 - 3:59After another day and a shower at the shelter,
-
3:59 - 4:02we realized it shouldn't be this hard.
-
4:02 - 4:03CO: In a country like ours
-
4:03 - 4:05where we breathe wi-fi,
-
4:05 - 4:08leveraging technology for a faster recovery should be a no-brainer.
-
4:08 - 4:11Systems like the ones that we were creating on the fly
-
4:11 - 4:12could exist ahead of time.
-
4:12 - 4:14And if some community member
-
4:14 - 4:18is in this organizing position in every area after every disaster,
-
4:18 - 4:20these tools should exist.
-
4:20 - 4:23MO: So we decided to build them --
-
4:23 - 4:24a recovery in a box,
-
4:24 - 4:26something that could be deployed after every disaster
-
4:26 - 4:28by any local organizer.
-
4:28 - 4:30CO: I decided to stay in the country,
-
4:30 - 4:31give up the master's in Moscow
-
4:31 - 4:34and to work full-time to make this happen.
-
4:34 - 4:35In the course of the past year,
-
4:35 - 4:38we've become experts in the field of community-powered disaster recovery.
-
4:38 - 4:41And there are three main problems that we've observed
-
4:41 - 4:44with the way things work currently.
-
4:44 - 4:46MO: The tools. Large aid organizations are exceptional
-
4:46 - 4:49at bringing massive resources to bear after a disaster,
-
4:49 - 4:52but they often fulfill very specific missions
-
4:52 - 4:53and then they leave.
-
4:53 - 4:55This leaves local residents to deal
-
4:55 - 4:58with the thousands of spontaneous volunteers, thousands of donations,
-
4:58 - 5:00and all with no training and no tools.
-
5:00 - 5:03So they use Post-its or Excel or Facebook.
-
5:03 - 5:06But none of these tools allow you to value high-priority information
-
5:06 - 5:09amidst all of the photos and well wishes.
-
5:09 - 5:10CO: The timing.
-
5:10 - 5:14Disaster relief is essentially a backwards political campaign.
-
5:14 - 5:15In a political campaign,
-
5:15 - 5:19you start with no interest and no capacity to turn that into action.
-
5:19 - 5:20You build both gradually
-
5:20 - 5:23until a moment of peak mobilization at the time of the election.
-
5:23 - 5:26In a disaster, however, you start with all of the interest
-
5:26 - 5:27and none of the capacity.
-
5:27 - 5:30And you've only got about seven days to capture
-
5:30 - 5:3350 percent of all of the Web searches that will ever be made
-
5:33 - 5:34to help your area.
-
5:34 - 5:36Then some sporting event happens,
-
5:36 - 5:39and you've got only the resources that you've collected thus far
-
5:39 - 5:42to meet the next five years of recovery needs.
-
5:42 - 5:44This is the slide for Katrina.
-
5:44 - 5:47This is the curve for Joplin.
-
5:47 - 5:50And this is the curve for the Dallas tornadoes in April
-
5:50 - 5:52where we deployed software.
-
5:52 - 5:53There's a gap here.
-
5:53 - 5:57Affected households have to wait for the insurance adjuster to visit
-
5:57 - 5:59before they can start accepting help on their properties.
-
5:59 - 6:03And you've only got about four days of interest in Dallas.
-
6:03 - 6:05MO: Data.
-
6:05 - 6:07Data is inherently unsexy,
-
6:07 - 6:09but it can jumpstart an area's recovery.
-
6:09 - 6:10FEMA and the state
-
6:10 - 6:14will pay 85 percent of the cost of a federally declared disaster,
-
6:14 - 6:16leaving the town to pay last 15 percent of the bill.
-
6:16 - 6:18Now that expense can be huge,
-
6:18 - 6:22but if the town can mobilize X amount of volunteers for Y hours,
-
6:22 - 6:24the dollar value of that labor used
-
6:24 - 6:26goes toward the town's contribution.
-
6:26 - 6:28But who knows that?
-
6:28 - 6:31Now try to imagine the sinking feeling you get
-
6:31 - 6:35when you've just sent out 2,000 volunteers and you can't prove it.
-
6:35 - 6:38CO: These are three problems with a common solution.
-
6:38 - 6:41If we can get the right tools at the right time
-
6:41 - 6:43to the people who will inevitably step up
-
6:43 - 6:45and start putting their communities back together,
-
6:45 - 6:47we can create new standards in disaster recovery.
-
6:47 - 6:51MO: We needed canvasing tools, donations databasing,
-
6:51 - 6:54needs reporting, remote volunteer access,
-
6:54 - 6:56all in an easy-to-use website.
-
6:56 - 6:57CO: And we needed help.
-
6:57 - 7:00Alvin, our software engineer and cofounder, has built these tools.
-
7:00 - 7:02Chris and Bill have volunteered their time
-
7:02 - 7:04to use operations and partnerships.
-
7:04 - 7:08And we've been flying into disaster areas since this past January,
-
7:08 - 7:10setting up software, training residents
-
7:10 - 7:15and licensing the software to areas that are preparing for disasters.
-
7:15 - 7:18MO: One of our first launches was after the Dallas tornadoes this past April.
-
7:18 - 7:22We flew into a town that had a static outdated website
-
7:22 - 7:24and a frenetic Facebook feed trying to structure the response.
-
7:24 - 7:25And we launched our platform.
-
7:25 - 7:28All of the interest came in the first four days,
-
7:28 - 7:29but by the time they lost the news cycle,
-
7:29 - 7:31that's when the needs came in,
-
7:31 - 7:34yet they had this massive resource of what people were able to give
-
7:34 - 7:36and they've been able to meet the needs of their residents.
-
7:36 - 7:38CO: So it's working, but it could be better.
-
7:38 - 7:42Emergency preparedness is a big deal in disaster recovery
-
7:42 - 7:45because it makes towns safer and more resilient.
-
7:45 - 7:47Imagine if we could have these systems ready to go in a place
-
7:47 - 7:49before a disaster.
-
7:49 - 7:52So that's what we're working on.
-
7:52 - 7:54We're working on getting the software to places
-
7:54 - 7:56so people expect it, so people know how to use it
-
7:56 - 7:57and so it can be filled ahead of time
-
7:57 - 8:00with that microinformation that drives recovery.
-
8:00 - 8:01MO: It's not rocket science.
-
8:01 - 8:04These tools are obvious and people want them.
-
8:04 - 8:07In our hometown, we trained a half-dozen residents
-
8:07 - 8:09to run these Web tools on their own.
-
8:09 - 8:11Because Caitria and I live here in Boston.
-
8:11 - 8:12They took to it immediately,
-
8:12 - 8:14and now they are forces of nature.
-
8:14 - 8:17There are over three volunteer groups working almost every day,
-
8:17 - 8:19and have been since June 1st of last year,
-
8:19 - 8:22to make sure that these residents get what they need and get back in their homes.
-
8:22 - 8:25They have hotlines and spreadsheets and data.
-
8:25 - 8:26CO: And that makes a difference.
-
8:26 - 8:29June 1st this year marked the one-year anniversary
-
8:29 - 8:31of the Monson tornado.
-
8:31 - 8:34And our community's never been more connected or more empowered.
-
8:34 - 8:36We've been able to see the same transformation
-
8:36 - 8:38in Texas and in Alabama.
-
8:38 - 8:40Because it doesn't take Harvard or MIT
-
8:40 - 8:43to fly in and fix problems after a disaster,
-
8:43 - 8:44it takes a local.
-
8:44 - 8:46No matter how good an aid organization is at what they do,
-
8:46 - 8:48they eventually have to go home.
-
8:48 - 8:50But if you give locals the tools,
-
8:50 - 8:53if you show them what they can do to recover,
-
8:53 - 8:57they become experts.
-
8:57 - 9:00(Applause) MO: All right. Let's go.
-
9:00 - 9:02(Applause)
- Title:
- How to step up in the face of disaster
- Speaker:
- Caitria + Morgan O'Neill
- Description:
-
After a natural disaster strikes, there’s only a tiny window of opportunity to rally effective recovery efforts before the world turns their attention elsewhere. Who should be in charge? When a freak tornado hit their hometown, sisters Caitria and Morgan O’Neill -- just 20 and 24 at the time -- took the reins and are now teaching others how to do the same. (Filmed at TEDxBoston.)
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 09:23
Krystian Aparta commented on English subtitles for How to step up in the face of disaster | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for How to step up in the face of disaster | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for How to step up in the face of disaster | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for How to step up in the face of disaster | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for How to step up in the face of disaster | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for How to step up in the face of disaster | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for How to step up in the face of disaster | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for How to step up in the face of disaster |
Krystian Aparta
The English transcript was updated on 11/6/2015.