[Mb-civic] Katrina's Lesson in Readiness - Paul C. Light - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Katrina's Lesson in Readiness

By Paul C. Light
Thursday, September 1, 2005; Page A29

Even as the Gulf Coast states battle to recover from Hurricane Katrina, 
Washington should take heed of the chaos surrounding the early relief 
effort. If this is what happens when the nation has two days of advance 
warning, imagine the aftermath of a surprise attack using a chemical, 
biological or nuclear device.

There will be plenty of stories of heroism in coming months as thousands 
of volunteers descend on the disaster zone. But the hubris is already 
showing. Thousands of residents ignored the evacuation warnings; many 
relief agencies waited until the hurricane had passed to start sending 
supplies and volunteers to jumping-off points in surrounding states; and 
the president was heading to California as the hurricane moved in. 
Although the Department of Homeland Security and its Federal Emergency 
Management Agency are moving at near-light speed to coordinate an 
unprecedented relief effort built around DHS's National Response Plan, 
the nation must get even faster in the future.

Ironically, a Category 5 hurricane was already on the Department of 
Homeland Security's list of 15 planning scenarios for emergency 
response. In an effort to give organizations more specific guidance 
about how to plan for catastrophic events, the department issued the 
scenarios last winter in the hopes that governments, businesses and 
charitable organizations would start rehearsing their response.

Unfortunately, a yet-to-be-released survey by New York University 
suggests that most Americans expect disaster to hit just about anywhere 
but home. Most have enough canned goods and bottled water in the closet 
to last a few days, but they want their local police and fire agencies, 
the Red Cross, and charities to tell them what to do in the event of a 
catastrophe. The problem with Katrina is that many citizens did not 
listen before the hurricane, and communications were cut off after. 
Plenty of emergency planners had nightmares about a Category 5 hurricane 
hitting somewhere, but few woke up and started preparing.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/31/AR2005083102257.html
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