Violent storms have hit various parts of China including Guangdong, Liaoning and Heilongjiang  provinces. There are mechanisms to cope with disasters across China and they are now responding to the current onslaught. However, the public finds the response far from satisfactory.

The most important task now is to save lives and salvage people's property, but it is also vital to satisfy public opinion. There has been a great shortcoming in emergency mechanisms to deal with public opinion. Not many grass-roots officials grasp its essence.

Rescue work in Guangdong Province is being carried out. The era when all of society united to fight natural calamities has gone. The media is more intent on focusing on the seriousness of the disaster and criticizing the government's flaws in its rescue process.

Chinese officials should establish an effective program to cope with media inquiries when disaster strikes. This would help local governments communicate with opinion platforms in critical situations. The success of such communication will boost the morale of people in disaster-stricken areas and help rescue and reconstruction work go smoothly.

In a disaster, public opinion is not the most important thing, and rescue work should be made the priority. However, negative sentiments during a disaster can spread rapidly and combine with other disasters. Then it will be difficult to communicate with the public and a trivial matter may evolve into a thorny challenge.

When a disaster strikes, society mostly reflects on the ability of the government to react to the situation. This is reasonable, as the government is the leading factor in public rescue work. Meanwhile, it is worth noting that during the actual rescue process, people's ability to save themselves in the first place is of utmost importance. This has been highly stressed in developed countries, but is diluted by criticism of the government here in China.

People vary in terms of their ability to help themselves. Strengthening this ability is undoubtedly needed in society. Public opinion should attach the same importance to this as to the emergency mechanisms of the government.

In many disasters, casualties can be avoided. Both inadequate government work and individuals' inability to deal with them may be the reason why tragedies occur. The government may have underestimated the impact of a disaster, but individual misjudgment can also be a factor.

Objectively speaking, the rescue capability of Chinese government agencies ranks high in the world, but the number of flood victims in China is also relatively high. Poor basic infrastructure is a significant reason, while lack of self-preservation ability is another. Both the government and the public work together to tackle all kinds of disasters. To look into our problems with a practical approach helps enhance our ability to cope with disasters and face them with firmness.