Health Communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Health Communication - Essay Example However, official advisories and disaster preparedness alerts were issued five days later; specifically on 28th October, practically few hours before the heavy storms and strong winds forcefully swept across the East Coast cities of New York and New Jersey. Admittedly, the massive casualties inflicted by the hurricane on the East Coast can be attributed to the untimely provision of risk communication by the relevant authorities. In a period of only two days from October 22 to October 24, 2012, the FEMA regional office in Miami, Florida had ascertained that the hurricane’s strength was growing exponentially. However, issuance of official public advisories was delayed until the hurricane’s storms hit a limit of 105 miles per hour (Downing & Smith, 2013). Apparently, delay in issuance of official communication was caused by the bureaucratic nature of coordination between the FEMA National Watch Center and the NOAA National Weather Service. In essence, both the FEMA and the NOAA were avoiding public panic resulting from early issuance of immature information regarding to the hurricane’s development (CDC, 2012). The potential severity of Hurricane Sandy became clear as early as 19th October, 2012 when a wave in the Northern Caribbean Sea transformed from a tropical wave to a tropical storm in a period of under six hours. When the tropical storm reached Southeast Florida on 22nd October, its winds were sustained at approximately 40 miles per hour. By the evening of October 23rd, the growing tropical storm had cruised over the vast distance between Florida’s Jupiter Inlet and the Upper Keys, including Craig Key (Downing & Smith, 2013). At 0500 hours on 24th October, it became evident that the tropical storm was headed for cities along the upper East Coast, and that the storm’s wind speeds had intensified considerably. As at the evening of 24th October, the storm was upgraded to a hurricane