FROM THE TERRYREPORT:

The president of Chile is under sharp attack for not responding well, and quickly enough, to the earthquake and tsnami that hit last weekend. This is not surprising. President Bachelet, at first told the world that Chile would not need any international assistance in dealing wit the earthquake but had to change her position as the size and depth of the suffering became better apparent.

We all tend to judge the world by what we see. At the time that Bachelet, made her pronouncements, she was looking mainly at Santiago, where damage was comparatively minimal. The problem was this: the world was listening most closely right after the earthquake. When you tell international aid agencies to stand down, you add days to the potential response time and, in the process, risk the lives of those most in need of assistance.

Here is another massive problem: with instant cell contact with almost everywhere, and the Internet as a vast news source, our brains are becoming conditioned to believe that we know what is happening everywhere, all the time. We don’t. The first 24 hours after a disaster are the most difficult, because the need is the greatest and the information flow is the lowest. When officials are pressed to make decisions based on limited information, the default position usually comes into play. In the case of Chile, it was, hey, we can take care our own business, thank you.

The scope of the tsunami caught everyone by surprise, but reasonable questions have to be asked: where was the emergency response system in terms of communications? Are there no government officials, or trusted sources, in any of the southern towns and cities who could get through to the national leadership to give them an idea of the size of the disaster?

The TerryReport picked up on the nature of the disaster by carefully watching live Chile television over the Internet. One channel showed a view from a fixed wing aircraft flying at a low level over the towns of the southern coast of Chile. It was stunningly clear from these images that the tsunami was a major disaster. This same channel had a story from a reporter who traveled to two small villages that showed damage comparable to the 2004 Asian tsunami.

Every government should have calm, reasonable people who can assess the situation in response to major disasters. The top officials don’t have the time or the powers of concentration in the middle of a crisis to do this for themselves, except on a very limited basis.

A rich country like Chile, for example, should have an aircraft available with video imagining capability that could reach any but the most remote parts of the country within an hour or two. (The coast line is 3,000 miles long, but Santiago is well placed to move north or south.) These matters do not have to be the subject of a guessing game.  One aircraft could be on duty station in the south, another in the north and could easily transmit video to Santiago within hours of a disaster. An aircraft to the north could be shared with Peru.

It is interesting to note that news media organizations usually have much more equipment that governments when it comes to live video of disasters. The media, also, gets there first, because they don’t wait around to find out what is needed, they just go. Governments around the world, those that can afford it, should also have first assessment teams ready to move with very short notice.

You could argue that another major earthquake might not hit Chile for forty or fifty years. Well organized means of response to disaster, however, would not go to waste. Chile could assist her neighbors in times of crisis and can find other uses for emergency equipment, such as environmental assessment or flying injured from lesser disasters. There is always something, like forest fires or a plane crash that requires emergency response.

The United States should not feel in any way superior in regard to Chile’s evident mishandling of this crisis. Remember Katrina? We are all but totally unprepared for the potential of a massive terrorist attack or an earthquake on the scale of what hit Chile.

Doug Terry, 2.5.10

FROM AN NPR REPORT:

President Michelle Bachelet's term expires next week, and one of the richest men in the country, conservative Sebastian Pinera, will replace her.

Bachelet, a center-left politician, has been strongly criticized in Chile for her response to the quake, and some say the impending transition has complicated the government's handling of the disaster.

In an emotional hourlong radio appearance broadcast throughout Chile, Bachelet defended her response to Saturday's earthquake.

She said that in the hours immediately after the 8.8-magntiude earthquake, all the communications systems in the country collapsed. She said she wasn't able to find out if there was a tsunami. She said she couldn't even reach some of her key staff to arrange a helicopter in order to tour the damaged areas.

In the 1970s, Bachelet was tortured by the military under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

This week, she was hesitant to send in the army to restore order in the worst hit parts of Chile, and she has been strongly criticized for this.

Chile is one of the most prosperous nations in Latin America. In the capital, Santiago, glimmering skyscrapers jut up in front of the Andes.

The country has billions of dollars in fiscal reserves, and there is a sense of pride that the country knows how to handle earthquakes.

But Bachelet denied that she ever turned down offers of international aid. She said the government must make a thorough analysis of what is needed before Chile can request aid. She said rumors and misinformation are creating a national psychosis.

In addition to responding to criticism, Chile's first female president also stressed that the recovery is going to take time. She called for patience.

Bachelet's voice cracked with emotion as she told her people to have confidence that her government is doing everything possible to reach areas still cut off by the quake and tsunami.

But the criticism continues.

Raul Sohr is a political analyst at Chilevision, one of the country's largest TV networks, which also happens to be owned by Pinera, the incoming president. He says there is "no doubt" that the earthquake has seriously damaged Bachelet's legacy.

"She's been most unlucky. It all seemed to be glory in the final days of her government, but now she has stumbled badly," he says.