http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1477607/posts
...or directly via...
http://tiadaily.com/php-bin/news/showArticle.php?id=1026
Also a good one to read -
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1478273/posts
Posted on 09/08/2005 2:24:10 PM PDT by SirLinksalot
SOME KATRINA LESSONS: We're going to see a plethora of commissions and inquiries (most about as useful and non-partisan as the 9/11 Commission), but here are a few lessons that seem solid enough to go with now:
1. Don't build your city below sea level: If you do, sooner or later it will flood. Better levees, pumps, etc. will put that day off, but not prevent it.
2. Order evacuations early: You hate to have false alarms, but as Brendan Loy noted earlier, even 48 hours in advance is really too late if you want to get everyone out.
3. Have -- and use -- a plan for evacuating people who can't get out on their own: New Orleans apparently had a plan, but didn't use it. All those flooded buses could have gotten people out. Except that there would have had to have been somewhere to take them, so:
4. Have an emergency relocation plan: Cities should have designated places, far enough away to be safe, but close enough to be accessible, to evacuate people to. Of course, this takes coordination, so:
5. Make critical infrastructure survivable: I think that one of the key failures was the collapse of the New Orleans Police Department's radio system. Here's the story on why:
Tusa said the police department’s citywide 800 MHz radio system functioned well during and immediately after the hurricane hit New Orleans, but since then natural gas service to the prime downtown transmitter site was disrupted and the generator was out. Transmitter sites for the police radio system “are also underwater with the rising water and [are] now disabled,” Tusa said.
Owners of the sites that housed police radio transmitters would not allow installation of liquefied petroleum gas tanks as a backup to piped gas, meaning generators did not have any fuel when the main lines were cut, Tusa said.
Radio repair technicians attempting to enter the city were turned away by the state police, even though they had letters from the city police authorizing their access, Tusa said.
This is absurd, and I'm pretty sure it's the major factor leading to the disintegration of the New Orleans Police Department. That sort of gear should be survivable -- and there should also be a backup plan for how to get messages back and forth if the radios go out anyway: Messengers, broadcasts on commercial radio, etc.
(There should be a separate post-disaster communications plan for survivors, too -- so that they can locate relatives and let people know they're alive).
Other crucial infrastructure should be hardened as much as possible, too. There's only so much you should do, but disaster survivability should be considered at every stage of design, procurement, and construction.
6. Stock supplies and prepare facilities: The Superdome didn't have adequate food, water, and toilet facilities, even though everybody knew it was going to be a shelter of last resort. The Convention Center was worse. All public buildings that might be used for refugees should be ready. We used to stock fallout shelters that way; we could do it again.
7. Be realistic: Here's what the Los Angeles Fire Department tells people about an earthquake aftermath:
To those of us who live and work in the Greater Los Angeles area, earthquakes and other natural emergencies are a reality. In order to deal with this situation, emergency preparedness must become a way of life. In the event of a major earthquake or disaster, freeways and surface streets may be impassable and public services could be interrupted or taxed beyond their limits. Therefore, everyone must know how to provide for their own needs for an extended period of time, whether at work, home, or on the road.
That's just how it is. People need to be encouraged to do this. Whenever I say this, I get responses along the lines of "poor people can't afford to stockpile food." But here's a family survival kit for $50 and it's pretty good. Most poor people in America can afford food (that's why so many poor people are fat). They do have other problems that make preparation less likely, though (if you're the kind of person who thinks ahead and prepares for emergencies, you're much less likely to be poor to begin with) and local authorities have to be ready -- see the stockpile advice above.
8. Put somebody in charge: Politicians and bureaucrats thrive on diffusion of responsibility, because it helps them escape blame (as they're trying to do in the fingerpointing orgy that's going on now). Somebody needs to be clearly in charge. Right now it's mostly state governors, but this needs to be made inescapably plain, regardless of where it is. I don't agree with Mickey Kaus that we should ignore federalism and just put the President, or the FEMA Director, in charge and empower them to override state and local officials, but even that would be better than leaving no one in charge.
There's much more to be done on this topic, but it awaits clearer information on who dropped what balls when. However, it's worth noting that structural problems are always soluble when the people involved are willing to cooperate, and that no structure works well when it's staffed by idiots or people who don't take the problem seriously. Which raises another point:
9. Make people care: Actually, Katrina may have done this. Most people -- and politicians are worse, if anything -- have short time horizons. Disasters are things that just don't happen, until they do. Planning for them is ignored, or even looked down on, often by the very same people who are making after-the-fact criticisms that there wasn't enough planning. People usually get better after a big disaster, for a while. Beyond that, voters and pundits need to treat the subject with the importance it deserves instead of -- as is more typical -- treating it as the silly obsession of a few paranoid types.
I'm sure there's a lot more to be learned, but this is a start.
The failure of the police radio system is a crucial point that everyone should know. If the police force hadn't lost communications, they might not have fallen completely apart as a force for order-- we might not have had near the same collapse of society, and the whole problem might have been significantly lessened. And why did it happen? Because the landlord didn't want a backup tank. Sheesh.
If you anticipate a disaster, stockpile emergency supplies and transport 24 hours away by road under secure cover. As soon as the disaster clears, convoys should start moving. Each convoy must be guarded by police or National Guard units.
Funny how when the time came to get them out they rapidly had places to take them to. The argument "we had no where to go" is nonsense. They made no EFFORT to find anywhere to move them because the City of NO and the State of LA wanted THE FED MONEY from DHS but did NOTHING to actually PREPARE for what the money was GIVEN to them to do. At the best their are terminally incompetent, more likely they are fiscally corrupt. What did all the Federal Department of Homeland Security money given to the State of Louisiana and the City of New Orleans ACTUALLY buy us?
6: Don't leave a Dumbacrat in charge
Just what did all that Fed Homeland Security money given to the State and local Govts after 9-11 at the insistence of Sen Kerry, Biden, Clinton, Kennedy, Durbin et al to ""equip the 1st responders" BUY the Fed taxpayer?
No one who rises to governor or mayor of a major city is incompetent.
That's what they want you to think.
I guess that leaves "Corrupt."
Apparently La and NO frittered $1bil+ away on projects other than what it was supposed to be for.
We (after all it is OUR money) and whatever agency should demand an accounting of where the money goes that they hand out.
At the suggestion of writer Michelle Malkin last Friday, I have cobbled together a blogsite called Texas Clearinghouse for Katrina Aid to serve as a clearinghouse for refugee efforts in Texas.
Texas is getting more refugees than any other state -- that's fine, we'll take them all -- but we need help providing them with food, clothing, medicine, and shelter. We need help taking care of their pets, too.
If you are a refugee, you can information that will help you find relief. If you want to donate or volunteer, you can find someone who needs you. Believe me, there are a lot of organizations who need your help.
Right now the site mostly covers Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas but I'm adding more every night. My wife was down at Reunion Arena in Dallas Tuesday handing out care packages and spiritually ministering to the refugees as a representative of her employer. She says that the situation is tragic and that there's a lot of work to be done. There are so many children who don't know where their parents are or even if their parents are still alive.
There are a lot of churches and other organizations in Texas that need help in dealing with the problem and I would appreciate it if you would get the word out.
Many thanks,
Michael McCullough
Stingray blogsite
Most of the dead "victims" (and I put "victims" in quotes because the adults among them, at least, were victims to their own stupidity), in the final analysis, have only themselves to blame). No car? Then hop on a bike, or walk to higher ground. These options were available before the hurricane hit, and for at least 24 hours after it hit.
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