blog post – first quarter 2025
walking through water
As emergency managers, we spend significant time putting plans on paper and then to the test. We also try to put ourselves in others’ shoes to ensure we are being practical versus theoretical for those who must live and endure the processes and procedures we create and deploy.
Despite all of the classes, exercises, and interviews we strive to embrace, there really is no way we can truly appreciate what people who experience crises go through without enduring one ourselves.
In early October of last year, my family and I – along with tens of thousands of others living in Chiang Mai, Thailand – saw the local Ping River peak at more than two meters (six plus feet) above flood stage. For the second time in two weeks, water rushed into neighborhoods without hesitation turning roads into mini-rivers and forcing people into their homes for protection.
The notification of the second event told us to expect a return of the situation from the prior week, which in our neighborhood had been difficult but manageable. We again prepared food, water, and emergency necessities expecting to be homebound for up to three days.
This time was different, however. The initial information on which we relied was wrong for whatever reason. The water rose significantly higher than the previous week and where a week earlier we had watched water infiltrate our yard we now watched it submerge everything outside and enter the house.
We had talked through our emergency plan and as soon as we felt the in-home breach was near, we moved the last of our critical possessions and ourselves to the second story. From our picturesque front window, we watch the waters consume our car up above the dashboard. When the retaining wall at the house next door failed, all the water in our cul-de-sac found a new pathway to destruction, putting exceptional strain our own structures which thankfully held.
On the second day, with the water still rising, we decided we need to get out of the house. We had planned for living upstairs for a few days if necessary and had plenty of food and water. What we hadn’t given enough weight to in the equation was the heat. With the power off to prevent electrocution, we had all the windows open. But there was very little breeze making it stifling hot inside at times with the strong smell of gasoline, kerosene, and sewage making it difficult to breathe at times.
Fortunately power banks allowed us to make necessary mobile calls and ultimately some very dear friends were able to arrange for us to be rescued after a second night of no sleep as the waters showed no signs of abating. When the small boat arrived, we slogged downstairs, into waist-high water, and got our dogs and critical possessions into the boat. We walked alongside in the unclean water for about 20 minutes till we reached an area where cars were able to arrive and whisk people to safety.
When we finally got to our hotel – one of the few that took dogs – there was an immeasurable sense of relief. Of course, it was short-lived as we knew we would need to go back to the house to deal with the aftermath once the waters receded.
I had never really been through anything where I was genuinely concerned for my family’s safety and well-being. That was a new kind of stress with which I was personally unfamiliar. As the weeks went on, we were introduced to quite a bit that I had only known on paper until this event.
We’re now in a new home with only a few things yet to resolve. I still have a few bad dreams about flooding, which, while unpleasant when they occur, I appreciate as keeping the experience front-of-mind for me as I continue my work in this field.
This isn’t a woe-is-me post. It’s an acknowledgement that no matter how much we learn, how much we know, and how much we do to become more empathetic, experience will always remain the best instructor, especially when it is us on the flip side of what we do for a living.
I don’t wish a crisis on anyone. But do whatever you can to walk a mile in the shoes of those for whom you are creating processes and procedures. Theirs is a more difficult journey – physically and emotionally – than we can otherwise understand on our best day.
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