Lessons Not Learned

I don't have time to write what I want to write so I'll boil my thoughts down to the following. The response was inadequate in strength. The relief was unorganized. Lines of communication filled with vital information couldn't get from the people with information to the decision makers that needed information. The labyrinthian organizations chart that is the Dept. of Homeland Security resembles the wiring diagrams of a late-model Volkswagen, sadly with similar results. FEMA needs to pay a few staffers to watch CNN, Fox News, and CNBC so they can find several thousand people in a convention center. Every news helicopter should have dropped a bundle of MREs to every person they found on a rooftop. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is at best an ill-informed decision-maker, at worse a incompetent tool.

When people are suffering relief can never move fast enough. I know that. I'm being realistic. I just heard someone on a FEMA team say they were prepositioned in Mississippi before Katrina hit; it still took them 7 hours to go the last 110 miles to their assigned area after the winds died down. I know glitches will pop up to frustrate pre-made plans. Yet with a Force 4.999 hurricane bearing down on the Gulf Coast and three days notice ahead of time this was the best we got? From Mayor Ray Nagin, to Gov. Blanko of Louisiana, to President Bush himself there is plenty of blame to spread around in my opinion. While victims are still in the water and on rooftops, this isn't the time to have that discussion. Our first priority should be to evacuate New Orleans and assist 90,000 square miles (the size of Great Britain) of emergency zone. Will someone allow the multimillion dollar mobile hospital to get where it needs to go? With stories like the one I just linked to I fear the after action report dissection. It won't be pretty. Now I wonder about our response to emergencies where we don't have notice: earthquakes or man-made disasters. If anything positive comes out of the Katrina aftermath I hope we figure out how to do better next time.