Murphy’s law

The botched handling of Saturday’s disaster badly exposes our uncaring top government officials.

On Saturday, massive rains left at least 64 people dead and countless more injured. It uprooted people from their homes and left thousands without phone lines and electricity. Economic damages alone were estimated at between $95 billion and $100 billion. Local disaster responders said that given the scale of the event, some deaths and destruction were inevitable, even with the best of preparations. The trail of devastation that Hurricane Helene has left in its wake in the southeastern United States is the worst in decades. On the same day, halfway across the world in Nepal, incessant rains and floods and landslides killed at least 170, injured another 100, while 68 went missing. In Kathmandu Valley alone, 37 people perished in the heaviest rains the valley has seen in 54 years. Police personnel and rescue workers were digging up debris in multiple locations in the country, in the fear that more people might be buried. Both in the southeastern US seaboard and Nepal, Saturday’s water-induced disasters can be attributed to unpredictable weather. Yet, at least in Nepal’s case, climate change is only a part of a much larger story of neglect.