These assurances have been packaged by dubious regulation and technical jargon that substitute fact by fiction. Take for example, the comforting assurance from NuStar and local Government that the new oil storage tanks are designed "to withstand hurricanes up to and including Category 3 (120 mph)." However, over the last 23 years, St Eustatius experienced more violent tropical cyclones (LUIS, LENNY and HUGO) that even measured Category 4 on the hurricane scale.
Images of steel tanks dislodged and buckled in the wake of Katrina and Rita (Category 3) in Southern USA are carefully omitted by the (supposedly independent and very) Rapid Environmental Assessment Study. Amnesia also afflicted the creative and well paid authors that crafted the government's official response to the many local objections.
Who and what are we to believe?
Earthquakes that have shattered oil tanks and caused similar lapses of memory have equally been excluded. Examples of tank collapses and extensive uncontrolled fires were observed during the seismic events of Long Beach (1933), Niigata and Alaska (1964), San Fernando (1971), Kocaeli (1999) and more recently Haiti (2010).
Increasing frequency and magnitude of seismic activity in the immediate region are disregarded. Rumblings may be felt on Golden Rock but in The Hague, selective hearing persists. Even though huge tectonic plates are colliding a few miles off the coast of St. Eustatius, fiscal vaults not volcanic faults will shape compliance with building regulations.
Nevertheless, the local government reassures us that "regarding earthquakes, the design complies with ASCE 7-05 standard."
Who and what are we to believe?
Extreme logistics
However, we are told by our political representatives that they will draw up an Emergency Response Plan that also includes aspects such as evacuation of the population in the case of large scale calamities. No mention is made of when this so called plan will be developed? Emergency expert advice has always been ignored in the past.
With the airport closed due to its close proximity to the disaster, it will require extreme transport and medical logistics to care for over two thousand survivors.
And there is still the question of the airport runway. The International Civil Aviation Organization has already determined that the obstruction by 27.5 meter high oil tanks poses a risk. According to their international standards, the tanks may not be higher than 9 meters.
But who will pay in the event of a disaster? They should according to the politicians. But we know they won't. The only voluntary clean-up that interests their local director is the Old Jewish cemetery. Mazel tof!
And this ironically from Hebrew meaning good stars...
In the event of such a disaster, this fallen star will explode into a supernova of infinite lawyers fuelled by the Wall Street resources of Eternity.
But NuStar's David Smith has remarked that the probability of disaster is one in a million.
Who and what are we to believe?
Natural disasters can be mitigated. However, in such events, it is always a series of human mistakes that lead to fateful consequences. Einstein once observed that God does not play with dice. Fate may well be a divine providence but destiny can be shaped. The people of Statia deserve something better from their politicians with their casual approach to public interest and safety.
Unlike assurances from Eliza Doolittle about the Plain in Spain, promises from our Do-Little politicians are infinitely more fanciful. Besides, we all know that Commissioner Sneek finds it more lucrative to sell insurance than give honest assurance. Council member Brown finds it more lucrative to lay cables than serve voters. And for Lieutenant Governor Berkel who is responsible for communication and whose former company provides the slowest, most expensive and least reliable internet service in the Caribbean, neutrality is an ugly NuStar pipedream.
Who and what are we to believe?
James Russell