"There are no natural disasters, there are only natural events, and human action determines whether they become disasters or not," said Home Front Command Chief Yair Golan on Wednesday.
Golan spoke at the first academic forum for emergency situation management in the framework of Haifa University's program, Coping in Emergency and Disaster. According to other speakers at the conference, it appears that despite warnings, nothing has been done in Israel
to strengthen structures and prevent disasters. In time of need, it seems, Golan will pin his hopes on the Israeli public.
At the conference, which mainly addressed the task of local authorities at times of natural disasters, Golan also talked about the differences in the results of the earthquakes in Chile
and in Haiti.
Though the quake in Chile was stronger, there was less damage and fewer dead than in Haiti. He added that he thought Israelis would stay calm and function properly in any disaster.
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"There is no reason why someone heading a public institution should think that the Israeli public is some sort of ignorant mass which doesn't know how to respond to disaster," he said. "If we start with the correct premise that citizens know how to respond, our efforts to prepare will be more effective."
Golan noted that research into the first Gulf War in 1991 has revealed that Israeli leaders were sure that the first missiles would cause panic.
"In fact, of course, there was no panic," he said. "The 'panic' associated with the public was partly the result of poor preparation by the authorities, and partly the result of disproportionate media pressure. I allow myself to say with certainty that there will be no panic in the case of natural disaster."
Chairman of the inter-ministerial steering committee for earthquake preparation Dr. Avi Shapira said that a major earthquake could hit Israel at any time.
"In Israel there is a major quake once every 80 years, on average," he said. "Since the last one was in 1927, we find ourselves in the period of 'statistical error'. Of course, a few more decades could pass before we get hit, but it could also happen now. We also know that the longer the period between each quake, the more severe the quake when it comes."
After the tsunami in Chile (Photo: Reuters)
One of the problems, Shapira said, is the gap between local and national government. He noted that building standard regulations are good, but that the body charged with enforcement has few tools for checking if regulations have been followed.
He added that the way to avoid disaster is to reinforce buildings, but so far there has been no response to national master-plan 32 for reinforcing buildings. Already in 2005, this plan had allocated certain tall building zones to contractors for reinforcement, but even where this reinforcement was profitable, progress was slow.
"Out of some 100,000 buildings which need reinforcement, only a few hundred have been dealt with," he said. "The reason is the greed and stupidity of citizens on one hand, and the authorities' refusal to allocate further building zones to contractors, for various reasons, some justifiable and others less so."
Ephraim Karni, head of Israel's National Emergency Authority, said that only local authorities would be able to assist in the immediate aftermath of an earthquake. "It doesn't matter whether it's a strong local authority or a weak one, a well-functioning or poorly-functioning one, prepared or unprepared – it will have to act," he said.
Sharon Azrieli of the Center for Local Government said that central government is limiting local government steps and making it hard for local government to act.
_a.jpg "Home Front Command Chief Golan Photo: Avi Mualem")
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