Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1542822
AS some people, who really must have too much time on their hands, continue to debate whether 'Harry' was a storm in a teacup, a cyclone or a mini-hur- ricane, perhaps it would be more useful to assess how we handled what happened on Tuesday 20 January, and the aftermath. Even as the winds were howling, glass doors were being shattered and our coastline was getting bashed, there were those claim- ing we have had worse storms in the past and that the authorities were over-reacting with their re- peated warnings. On the contrary, I think this time our emergency forces acted correctly and by telling people to stay indoors unless neces- sary, they pre-empted a situation where we could have had injuries or even loss of life. It is always easy to downplay a situation when you are not the one literally in the eye of the storm. Living inland, where all you heard was the gale force winds is one thing; living near the sea up high in a penthouse, with win- dows and doors rattling and feel- ing like your home is going to be swirled up into the sky like Doro- thy's house in the Wizard of Oz, is a completely different story. One poor man in this precise situation, who was alone and ter- rified, asked on an expat group whether he should go check into a hotel instead, and the sarcastic replies from fellow expats were just too much: "This is a normal winter day in my country!" Now, how was that any conso- lation and how was that helping him? Luckily there were others who were kinder, and gave him sound advice. Those seafront establishments and homes at street level had an added adversary—the large waves which burst inside and flooded whatever was in their path. Mother Nature had no qualms about what it destroyed, whether it was man-made or not as could be seen at Għar Lapsi, the Sliema Chalet and pitch and, perhaps the worst hit of all, the fishing village of Marsaskala. Could anything have prevent- ed the scale of the destruction? Not really. Not much can pre- pare you for that kind of havoc. But more heed could have been taken of the Met Office warnings about which direction the wind was coming from, and those di- rectly in Harry's path could have boarded up their glass windows and used sandbags to mitigate some of the damage. Having said that, even mention of the word sandbags would have probably been received by a derisive scoff. My hunch is that we often have such a cavalier, almost non- chalant attitude towards severe weather that despite hearing that a cyclone was heading our way from Sicily, there were those who shrugged and said, "u iva, we've had gale winds before, how bad can it be?" It perplexes me because it's not like tragedies have not occurred before during floods and bad storms; in fact, this past week had us all recalling probably the worst one in October 1979 when four people died—a woman drowned in her flooded basement while three other people who aban- doned their cars in the floods were swept away by the rushing water and found lifeless, miles away. More recently, in February 2018, during strong winds, a tree fell on a van being driven by a Romanian national, crushing the van and killing him instantly. His wife, who was in the passenger seat, was seriously injured. In between we have had many instances of heavy rainfall for which we never seem to be ade- quately prepared, people having to be rescued from their stalled cars and low-lying areas being dangerously flooded. Our over- built urban areas and lack of proper water drainage systems have created even more poten- tial hazards when we are hit by storms. It is for this reason that it made sense to tell people to stay in- doors during Storm/Cyclone Harry; the less people driving and walking around the less chance of being hit by flying debris, or a fallen tree. Keeping people off the streets also meant that emergen- cy resources were not as stretched and response times were relative- ly quick. The red alert warning of Force 9 winds was issued in good time (for those who took it seri- ously) but as some have rightly suggested, what we now need is to have an emergency SMS alert to mobile phones to reach every- one, including tourists, rather than relying on social media to spread the word. What did not make sense to me and most people were the mixed messages: Children could stay home and would be excused, but teachers were expected to re- port to work. Only three specific schools were given permission to close, in Mellieħa, St Paul's Bay and Qawra apparently because most of the teaching staff are Gozitan. And while the Junior College opted to close, the Uni- versity of Malta announced, in a very badly written announce- ment, that exams would proceed as usual giving students no choice but to attend. It was no wonder that everyone was left scratching their heads and asking "huh?" The real issue at the root of this decision is that not everyone has an understanding employer and childcare options in place for such emergency scenarios. There are also certain jobs/professions where you cannot simply not show up, such as the health pro- fession, care home personnel, bus drivers, police officers and the very front line responders we rely on. Ultimately, many par- ents who had the ability to do so, kept their children home, while teachers who were forced to go to work grumbled that, as usual, their role is viewed as glorified child-minders. It was a thorny dilemma but giv- en the possible risks, ideally there should have been a nation-wide decision for all educational es- tablishments to close. Even if this extreme weather only happens periodically in Malta, maybe it's time to have a plan already in place for the children of essential workers who must go to work to have somewhere where they will be well taken care of. These could be community-based where neighbours and volunteers come together to ensure parents have their mind at rest, especially when they are single parents and have no family support in this country. While researching this topic I came across the following letter in a Jamaican newspaper follow- ing Hurricane Melissa in Novem- ber of last year which perfectly mirrors the local situation: "I am a single mother and an essential worker. When government or- ders were issued for schools and child care facilities to close for safety, I fully understood and supported the decision. Howev- er, it immediately placed me and many others in an impossible position. With no relatives living in this parish and no community support system to fall back on, I was forced to make a heartbreak- ing choice: Do I stay home to keep my child safe, or do I report to work to serve my country as required? When schools and day cares close, essential workers who rely solely on those services are left stranded. Many of us cannot af- ford private babysitters or emer- gency help. Some workers have even had to bring their children to workplaces unsuited for them simply because there was no oth- er option. These situations create emo- tional distress and compromise both safety and productivity. I believe the time has come for Jamaica to seriously consider es- tablishing emergency child care measures or systems for essential workers during national crises." While we may not have been hit by a hurricane, our smaller scale Harry certainly showed us that we are woefully unprepared when it comes to this matter. The debris will be cleared and the damage will be repaired but we should not become compla- cent in how to tackle a red alert. I think there is consensus that the authorities handled it well and, overall, members of the public did co-operate. What we need now is to put a system in place so that schools do not have to open during a cy- clone because their parents have no other alternative where to leave their children. 3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 25 JANUARY 2026 OPINION Josanne Cassar She has worked in the field of communications and journalism for the last 30 years Oh, Harry! Lessons learned, where we went wrong, what we got right What did not make sense to me and most people were the mixed messages: Children could stay home and would be excused, but teachers were expected to report to work Storm Harry has exposed a gaping hole in Malta's emergency response—the need to have a childcare support system for essential workers when the situation requires schools to close