Lessons From Katrina

   As a member of the Emergency Services I was amazed by the response to Hurricane Katrina by all levels of government, but especially by the federal government.

  Now this is perhaps understandable in the case of state and local agencies as Louisiana in general and New Orleans in particular have legendary levels of corruption, and hence incompetence.

  However in the case of the US government it is rather more dismaying.
The US federal government spends massive amounts of money and much air-time convincing Americans that they are doing everything humanly possible to keep them safe. They created a whole new Dept after 9/11, The Dept of Homeland Security.

  FEMA the Federal Emergency Management Agency, formally an independent body was put under the auspices of this Dept. Mr Bush then appointed a man with no experience in Emergency Management to lead this group.

  The US Government's and FEMA's response to Katrina was woeful. Even once the full extent of the disaster was known it was painfully slow. Now Mr Brown has dutifully fallen on his sword and at least someone more qualified went into his position but it still leaves several major important questions to answer.

  Homeland Security's budget is almost immeasurable. New Orleans is a relatively small city. What would happen if a major catastrophe were to occur in New York, or Los Angeles, or Chicago? How could the government adequately respond to the having to deal with millions of homeless or injured?

  Rita has shown that agencies are learning from their mistakes, but the chilling question remains that we are ill prepared for a major catastrophe either natural or man made.