With Iowa recently underwater, the nation witnessed the worst natural disaster on U.S. soil since Hurricane Katrina. What should be on the minds of government officials and residents alike is what to do if a similar disaster strikes in the Baltimore region.

Planning records show crafting a disaster plan is not a top priority.

The Baltimore City Office of Emergency Management, for example, offers a Community Emergency Response Team program. It teaches residents about  “light search and rescue, team organization and disaster response skills.” The 11-team program is split into different regions of Baltimore and responds accordingly when emergencies occur. Providing assistance while professional emergency teams try to enter the city is critical, and would reduce fatalities. But citizen emergency services only have so much power when nature rises to horrific levels.

The city of Baltimore and surrounding areas follow the natural disaster response guidelines of the Maryland Department of Environment. However, when disaster strikes, the department must worry about the entire state, making regional leadership necessary.

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If natural disaster planning from the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board is the answer, we need help. In September 2007, the Baltimore Regional Operations Coordination Committee held a meeting to discuss “the priorities for regional evacuation planning.” In this meeting, no specifics were given as to what evacuation routes would be used, or what the “next steps” were to “ensuring an effective evacuation plan.”

The committee met again in March 2008, and discussed specifics including evacuation modeling. But yet again, the plans on how to execute these ideas were “discussed but not finalized,” according to a summary of the meeting.

This could have serious consequences.

Twenty-two percent of Baltimore residents live below the poverty line, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And about 40 percent of families with children survive at or near the poverty line. That means a large portion of Baltimore residents don’t have reliable means to travel outside the city. Before Hurricane Katrina, that same percentage of New Orleans residents lived below the poverty line. Three years later, residents living in the Big Easy are still finding it difficult to get back on their feet. Baltimore’s population is twice as much as New Orleans’ was,  which means the aftermath of a disaster would be even more tragic.

Lingering effects of a catastrophe would affect the city for a long time. The American Lung Association issues an annual report each year citing the most polluted cities in the United States. In its latest report, released in May, Baltimore ranked as the 10th most polluted city from short-term particle pollution. Combine this with the fact that the Chesapeake Bay is on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Dirty Water List, and the results are deadly. The city and surrounding areas would become a breeding ground for toxic agents in the event of a flood.

The probability of a natural disaster wrecking Baltimore is concededly low, with Hurricane Isabel in 2003 being the last notable natural threat. But the probability a disaster could have occurred in Iowa was low, too. The last time that region faced excessive flooding was the Great Flood of 1993, according to the National Weather Service. We should not be lulled into complacency by the gap between storms.

“Things happened really fast,” said Toby Hunvemuller of the Army Corps of Engineers, who was in Des Moines, Iowa, last month assisting in an attempt to stop the flooding. “We tried to figure out how high the [water] level would go. Not enough time. We lost ground.”

As he makes clear, there is little time for reflection in the middle of disaster. A plan needs to be in place before one happens to ensure the safety and well-being of residents and property.

So far, too many potential risks haven’t been addressed and disaster responses finalized and coordinated among county governments are incomplete. Local jurisdictions must not let the tyranny of immediate concerns prevent them from finalizing disaster response plans this summer. We’re already in hurricane season. Without a disaster response plan, Baltimore-area residents better hope the only water they see this summer is from the serenity of the Inner Harbor or the beach.  

Al Ortiz is an editorial page intern at The Baltimore Examiner. alejandro.ortiz@baltimoreexaminer.com