Typhoon slams Chuuk, on track to hit Yap harder

[egovenatus]

Honestly don't care why the looting and behavior happened....it's irrelevant, it's debate for no reason. The fact is it DID happen and many of the people there showed their true colors. I, in the profession I am in deal with bad people all the time and am in situations that are "hazardous to by health" frequently and have been in bad areas all overt the world and I am telling you that many of these people would be happy to slit your throat and take whatever you own, storm or not. It was far beyond the tribal and cultural posturing I have seen in the world. I have learned over the 18 years I have been in the military to recognize bad for what bad is. You can love the islands and the diving, but you are fooling yourself if you think the people there are all great people. Stress tends to bring out people's true colors, whether it be violence or otherwise. There is a reason that in training and selection we put people under massive amounts of stress that they are not used to....it's because it lets us see a number of things, one being who they really are.

I loved it there, till the locals went stupid....I met many good people there who are local, and I liked it so much I am seriously looking at moving to the Pacific region sometime in the future and will most likely look at going back to Chuuk next year, but there are many things I will change about my next trip and I'll take more precautions before I go as well. It's simply prudent, you are welcome to do whatever you wish. Enjoy your trips and please try to add to the discussion rather than nah nah nah I'm going again and you're not...it's juvenile at best and I know you have much more valuable information to offer.

 

[Hintermann]

I don't think anyone is suggesting the entire place​ is corrupted, but I think we're all well aware that a small minority can ruin things for everyone.

That might well be true but in every such case, that "small minority" gets away with it because there is a much larger majority that looks the other way and prefers to do nothing about it.

The whys and wherefores do not matter. Looting in a disaster hit area is one of the vilest examples of human behaviour and no amount of tongue-twisting can explain it away. Vultures feed on carrion as part of their natural instinct and yer we use the term as a derogatory exaple.

 

[Kevrumbo]

That might well be true but in every such case, that "small minority" gets away with it because there is a much larger majority that looks the other way and prefers to do nothing about it.

The whys and wherefores do not matter. Looting in a disaster hit area is one of the vilest examples of human behaviour and no amount of tongue-twisting can explain it away. Vultures feed on carrion as part of their natural instinct and yer we use the term as a derogatory exaple.

"Looting" is an inflammatory word that is equated with rampaging, marauding hordes and all the other cliches we've learned from disaster movies and overwrought media coverage of disasters. But most people behave well in disasters. If the crisis is prolonged, many of them engage in . . .foraging or requisitioning. You might too if [your home town's] electrical grid and economy were shut down by a disaster and there was no other way to get food, water, medicine and other vital supplies. Those things are not for sale in a major disaster; your credit card and often even your cash mean nothing. People take stuff, but it usually doesn't look like the mob and panic scenarios the movies and the media tend to promote. (LA Times 29 Aug 2010)

 

[scjoe]

I haven't seen any references to locals having to break into places to get food. What has gone on in Chuuk is not comparable to what happened in the Philippines a few years ago when people started running out of food.

Some of the comments in this thread remind me of the people on Scubaboard defending Mexico as a safe place around 2006-2007 They knew better than everyone else because they went to Mexico regularly and knew the great people of the country. The rest of us were being duped by the newspaper accounts. They pretty much stopped their defense when the Federal police came into Tijuana and disarmed the local police, a few mayors got shot, etc. Areas that don't respect the rule of law can be dangerous and unpredictable places for tourists, especially those who think they know what is going on. Mexico is a big country and not all of it is unsafe for tourists, but Chuuk is a much smaller place. If the people responsible for the recent looting aren't brought to justice, tourist safety will go down, not up in Chuuk. This is particularly true if the local police were involved in the looting.

 

[Kevrumbo]

I haven't seen any references to locals having to break into places to get food. What has gone on in Chuuk is not comparable to what happened in the Philippines a few years ago when people started running out of food.

Some of the comments in this thread remind me of the people on Scubaboard defending Mexico as a safe place around 2006-2007 They knew better than everyone else because they went to Mexico regularly and knew the great people of the country. The rest of us were being duped by the newspaper accounts. They pretty much stopped their defense when the Federal police came into Tijuana and disarmed the local police, a few mayors got shot, etc. Areas that don't respect the rule of law can be dangerous and unpredictable places for tourists, especially those who think they know what is going on. Mexico is a big country and not all of it is unsafe for tourists, but Chuuk is a much smaller place. If the people responsible for the recent looting aren't brought to justice, tourist safety will go down, not up in Chuuk. This is particularly true if the local police were involved in the looting.

Once more --Chuuk State has the full immediate aid and logistic support by the Compact of Free Association with the United States via FEMA through the US Territory of Guam --so of course the situation does not compare to the Philippines' apocalypse after Typhoon Hayan. Do you understand?

And if civil unrest is as bad as you are speculating above with police corruption and looters still running free & rampaging, then we would have heard about US National Guard Troops deploying to restore law and order.

What other imaginations & neuroses are percolating in your mind, scjoe?

 

[diver 85]

Rationalize and project on me as you think excuses your own outright prejudice & judgment and negativistic naive sensationalism, versus my objective observations & experiences as a tourist & Scuba patron for the past seven years, and fairly analyzing how such a natural disaster can break down a country heavily dependent on US aid to begin with --I don't care.

I'm going back there some day before the end of 2015 for my eighth consecutive year . . .and you're not.

I must pin a badge on you---what color do you want??.........

 

[nwflyboy]

So...ignoring all the social/political/philosophical angles...I dont see any word on what happened to the storm after it was "on track to hit Yap harder."
Did it? If so, how did Yap fare, relatively speaking - both in terms of storm damage, and "bad guys" in the aftermath?
Any other island regions get walloped after Yap? How about Palau - that's in the neighborhood...?

 

[scubafanatic]

Rationalize and project on me as you think excuses your own outright prejudice & judgment and negativistic naive sensationalism, versus my objective observations & experiences as a tourist & Scuba patron for the past seven years, and fairly analyzing how such a natural disaster can break down a country heavily dependent on US aid to begin with --I don't care.

I'm going back there some day before the end of 2015 for my eighth consecutive year . . .and you're not.

I think you're just so hopelessly addicted to the wreck diving there that there's essentially nothing that would dissuade you from going there, and that you'd pretty much tolerate any level of abuse/adverse conditions to go there, which is your choice. I refuse to tolerate, excuse away, rationalize such outrageous behavior, which is my choice.

 

[Kevrumbo]

I must pin a badge on you---what color do you want??.........

Color me bad. . .

I think you're just so hopelessly addicted to the wreck diving there that there's essentially nothing that would dissuade you from going there, and that you'd pretty much tolerate any level of abuse/adverse conditions to go there, which is your choice. I refuse to tolerate, excuse away, rationalize such outrageous behavior, which is my choice.

Yep . . . every year consecutively since 2007: Truk Lagoon 07-27 Dec '07 - ScubaBoard Gallery

And it's not that I tolerate "any level of abuse/adverse conditions" --I'm streetsmart & prepared, just trying not to be vulnerable to trouble & mayhem, and luckily haven't been a happenstance/chance victim of circumstances beyond my control or acts of God. . . (well, beyond getting bent/DCS type I in Truk and Bikini Atoll, and performing IWR that is ).

 

[RJP]

It's a shame that this thread has devolved the way it has.

---------- Post added April 22nd, 2015 at 08:08 AM ----------

So...ignoring all the social/political/philosophical angles...I dont see any word on what happened to the storm after it was "on track to hit Yap harder."
Did it? If so, how did Yap fare, relatively speaking - both in terms of storm damage, and "bad guys" in the aftermath?
Any other island regions get walloped after Yap? How about Palau - that's in the neighborhood...?

http://www.weather.com/storms/typhoon/news/typhoon-maysak-yap-philippines-pacific

"The Yap state islands of Ulithi suffered the worst of Maysak, as the southern eyewall raked the tiny atoll with less than 1,000 residents about 420 miles southwest of Guam. Homes were destroyed and trees were downed, and only one working bathroom was operational on the island, according to Holland."There's no account in these people's history of a storm like this, and the damage is immeasurable," said Holland in a Facebook post on April 2, 2015. "All that is left to survive on is what can be salvaged from what didn't blow away. There's no boat to go fishing. Every big tree that had anything good on it is upside down. There's enough water to have 1 quart per day, per person. One quart a day on an island with no shade and nothing but work to do."

http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/270094/yap-still-pounded-by-winds-as-atolls-start-recovery