Sense of Community

The White House deployed disaster-response and urban-search-and-rescue teams to Christchurch following the 6.3-magnitude earthquake that rocked the city on February 22. They were greeted there by Timothy Manning, a deputy administrator at the US Federal Emergency Management Agency who is in the country assisting with response efforts and is particularly qualified to do so. Talk about being in the right place at the right time: Manning is a trained geologist, paramedic and firefighter — the perfect combination for earthquake response. He is in New Zealand as part of a US delegation visiting for trade and global security talks and for a review of the country’s cleanup efforts after a 7.-magnitude quake in September. The Washington Post asked Manning about how well-equipped New Zealand was in dealing with such disasters and how the local infrastructure compares with the American. Manning said: “As was obvious from how far they had come in recovery from the last earthquake and what I’ve seen in the last 24 hours [since the earthquake], they are very good here. New Zealanders have a strong sense of community and are very well-prepared and have come together very well.”