Superstorm Sandy Tuesday slammed the East Coast of the US with heavy rain and raging winds, leaving millions trapped in blackouts, disrupting transportation and forcing the stock markets to close.
The storm also caught the attention of Chinese on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, reminding them of the deadly rainstorm in Beijing in summer, which prompted calls for better disaster management.
Sandy killed at least 18 people in seven states and cut power to more than 6 million homes and businesses from the Carolinas to Ohio, AP reported.
Reuters reported that more than 1 million people across a dozen states were under orders to evacuate as the massive storm, which dropped below the status of hurricane before making landfall late on Monday in New Jersey, continued to plow westward.
According to AFP, seven subway lines and six bus stations in New York were submerged in seawater, in what network bosses said was the worst disaster in the city's transport history. Large sections of the city were left without power or transport.
The New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ, the world's biggest financial markets, suspended trading due to a weather event for the first time since Hurricane Gloria in 1985.
AFP quoted disaster estimator Eqecat as saying damage from Sandy could hit $20 billion.
Although the disaster was hardly likely to affect the lives of people on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, it became a hot topic on Weibo and Chinese mainstream media.
Some compared it to the July 21 rainstorm in Beijing, which killed 78 people and provoked public discontent over poor disaster prevention and relief programs.
A Web user said on Weibo Tuesday that the government should learn from the experience of the US in disaster prevention and relief, adding that "Beijing doesn't want to see another deadly rainstorm."
Jiang Lingling, Project Manager for China and Northeast Asia of Asian Disaster Preparedness Center based in Bangkok, told the Global Times via the phone that though she had never expected Beijing to be so vulnerable in the face of a strong rainstorm, it’s not surprising that given sewage systems and disaster risk management system in most Chinese cities remained stagnant in the past decades. However, global rainfall pattern has been totally changed since the new century.
“China is not lagging behind in disaster response and relief given its capacity to mobilize human and material resources in the world. Learning from the lessons of current and previous catastrophic disasters, many countries including China are now putting considerable effort and resources into emergency/crisis management. Ideally, this should include a shift of focus to disaster risk management with a major emphasis on building resiliency both at national and local levels. We can afford no hesitation, because the next disaster may happen at any minute,” said Jiang.
The storm also held back campaign activities ahead of the Presidential election on November 6.
Obama on Monday had to return to the White House and ditch events in battlegrounds Florida, Ohio and Virginia. And Republican nominee Mitt Romney canceled campaign events in Virginia but kept a date Monday in each of two toss-up states, Ohio and Iowa.
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