At times like these, it’s useful to remember that SOE members of all stripes – from operations engineers to transport engineers, engineer surveyors and environmental engineers – could be useful in a rescue and recovery effort.
Engineers can instruct a mobilised volunteer workforce how to take action in a controlled and strategic manner. They are trained to work in a logical and methodical manner when diagnosing or troubleshooting problems, skills that would help combat the overwhelming nature of natural disasters. (But see also this advice about dealing with an emergency: www.is.gd/ceniwo).
Plant and transport engineers can reconnect power supplies, start up vehicles and fix municipal plant such as water pumps to help provide light and electricity for rescue and medical care, restore water supplies and clear roads for access to aid convoys.
In the longer term, transport engineers and engineer surveyors can ensure that equipment being used remains safe and efficient to use. Environmental engineers can protect critical equipment from the elements and work to help minimise the effect of the rescue effort on the environment.
For UK-based members, donating to the Disaster Emergencies Committee’s charity appeal, which also launched last month (www.is.gd/alokin), may be the most effective direct action.
But that does not mean they cannot learn lessons from dealing with a crisis, albeit small. In every job, engineers should get used to asking themselves, what would happen if this were to fail? What would be my best response, and how can I make that possibility less likely now, and in future?
Once when I was a railway engineer working in a repair outage over a Saturday night, our crane broke down. We could not fix it. To finish the job, we had to bring in three smaller cranes that together provided the capacity of the bigger unit that failed. Working with them was a lot slower and harder, but in the end, we did it. Engineers find solutions.