It was just over a year ago that America saw the damage caused to the Mid-Atlantic coastal states by Hurricane Sandy. The bleak and desolate images that were captured by media outlets demonstrated the massive potential that natural disasters have to decimate an area and damage people's lives.
Last week, the Philippines got hit even harder. Typhoon Haiyan has affected millions of people - with hundreds of thousands of people displaced and an incalculable amount of deaths, estimations now range from thousands to possibly tens of thousands of people killed.
It will be weeks until officials have definitive answers to the full extent of the devastation inflicted and deaths caused by this storm.
International organizations are already in the process of preparing to execute a comprehensive relief effort. What needs to be emphasized at this point is the need to have the right priorities in line to properly plan such assistance measures and the need to have the resources necessary to implement aid.
Most of the news coverage regarding the storm has centered on the horrendous destruction in the capital city of Tacloban. Much of the damage, however, has spread throughout fragmentary areas of the region - including isolated rural towns and villages.
It is pivotal to recognize how widely spread out this storm was and how there will be operational intricacies involved in trying to perform an effective relief effort that reaches all the people and places that were impacted by the storm.
What this means is that, due to the scope of the destruction, the international community is facing a very difficult challenge in trying to help the Philippines in this time of desperate need.
As essential as the strategic preparation for executing aid is to a successful relief effort, it is as important that people living far away from the disaster don't see it as something distant and abstract; we need to think, 'What if this happened to us?'
When Hurricane Sandy struck right in our backyard, many of us knew people who had been directly impacted by the tragedy. And many made it a priority to provide assistance of some kind - whether it was a $5 donation or a package of soup cans.
Many members of the UB community got together and participated in the cause of supplying the victims with food, clean water and medical equipment. Many also contributed to efforts involved in attempting to fix the infrastructure damage caused by the storm.
It is imperative that we remember the devastation of the situation many on the coast suffered a year ago and we all understand the need to do something to assist those helping the victims suffering in the Philippines.
The U.S. military has dispatched food, water, generators and soldiers to help in the initial stages of what will become an international relief mission.
But our military can only do so much.
Doctors Without Borders is already accepting donations to send medical doctors to provide care to victims and the American Red Cross is sending help to some of the hardest hit communities of this most recent calamity.
One of the benefits of living in the digital age of today - what some call a network culture - is that it facilitates a way to communicate widely across international parameters. Students at UB should recognize the power of social media during this time and use their accounts to show friends and those in their networks how they can help to support relief efforts.
Another benefit of the Internet is the power it has to transmit information. Just taking a look at some of the pictures that show the massive scale of devastation to the Philippines is harrowing and may induce some to donate just $5.
The U.S. populous is over 300 million people. If that many people donated just $5 to the relief effort, it would accumulate to $1.5 billion - and that would certainly be a good start to helping those in a dire situation.
The UB community should come together now and not just provide support of some kind, but use their social media to spread the word of the necessity and ease of how others can help, too.
email: editorial@ubspectrum.com
