United States, Great Lakes

[Page 717]The Great Lakes region includes lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario; the American states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York; and the bordering Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario. The region has been growing in population almost constantly since the early 1600s, and the population consistently is self-reliant in terms of disaster relief. The formation of national and international disaster relief organizations have also provided aid to the authorities of nearby local communities for distribution.

The most common disasters for the region are maritime, weather-related, and fire. Maritime disasters occur mainly in the late fall of each year during what is commonly referred to as the gales of November. Just before winter makes the lakes impassable, the owners and crew of commercial ships gamble on the weather for their final voyages. Approximately 6,000 shipwrecks have been recorded on the Great Lakes, with the death toll totaling upward of 30,000.

In the early days of ship travel, both sailing ships and steamers were constantly overloaded with passengers by their owners and captains to gain the highest-possible profit from every voyage. These tactics proved perilous for passengers, as the poorly maintained ships and the lack of adequate safety measures caused many immigrants to perish in the resulting wrecks.

In the mid-1800s, the U.S. Life Saving Service was formed to rescue people on the lakes using large row-boats sent from strategically placed stations, and was later incorporated into the U.S. Coast Guard.

Other organized relief came with charitable organizations like the Red Cross and Salvation Army, but disaster relief was primarily localized until the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was created in 1976. FEMA brought both the assistance and the bureaucracy of the federal government, and in the end, the local population has still proven to be the best source of disaster relief in the Great Lakes region.