[September 9, 2017] They say that senior leadership is all about big issues and that is true in its most literal sense when it comes to major hurricane preparation and recovery. Anybody can make easy decisions. Anybody can travel down a path traveled before by others. But being a great leader can mean making difficult decisions where lives hang in the balance.
That is the case of Hurricane Irma, the most powerful recorded hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean and it’s about to slam into the United States. The power of hurricanes is difficult to imagine by ordinary folks. That is why it takes someone like the Governor of Florida who issued a number of blunt messages with a clear warning. Governor Rick Scott said late yesterday, “If you have been ordered to evacuate, leave now. Not tonight, not in an hour, now.”
I heard him on my car radio while driving home from Lowe’s Home Improvement store say something to the effect; “Don’t expect government to help you … don’t call 911 because no one will answer … we will not risk the lives of emergency personnel to rescue people who are irresponsible … if you stay, you will likely die.” Wow, a politician who is willing to actually tell it like it is.
Hurricane Irma is being compared to the highly destructive Hurricane Andrew which wrecked havoc on the Bahamas and the U.S. in 1992. Meteorologist Eric Holthaus posted a gif on Twitter which compared the scale of the two hurricanes (see link here) and picture of it below.1
Yet the hardest part of Governor Scott’s job will not be today or tomorrow (Sunday) – when the hurricane is expected to strengthen back to a Category 5 and makes landfall in southern Florida – but dealing with the aftermath as it destroys nearly everything in its path. U.S. President Trump has also promised all resources of the federal government to help. The effort now is all about saving lives.
Leadership lessons were learned the hard way when Hurricane Katrina infamously destroyed much of New Orleans, southern Louisiana, and Mississippi in 2005. The bumbling local efforts of New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin who waited too long to act, gave state and federal governments a bad name when it comes to hurricane preparation and recovery efforts.
It appears those lessons are being applied here. Let’s hope and pray that the loss of life is minimal and the recovery efforts are undertaken fairly and quickly.
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