Katrina Aftermath — Off Topic
I'm sorry that this post is off-topic but I just have to make some comments.
There were so many problems with the reaction to hurricane Katrina and so many Monday-morning- quarterbacks who think they know why. But the fact is that this disaster was of such immense proportions and scope that it overwhelmed our ability to plan, or even comprehend, such an event.
However, there are some important lessons that have been (hopefully) learned by this tragedy. Let me point out some of them.
1) Disaster plans for high-density urban areas occupied largely by poor, uneducated, and non-mobile people MUST be very different than for a relatively affluent, informed, highly mobile population. Mandatory evacuation orders mean nothing to someone who doesn't have the means, or desire, to evacuate -- or the educated realization that evacuation is in their best interest.
2) Communications systems, both official and public, fail when wide-spread electrical outages occur. All modern communications systems depend on the availability of conventional electrical power. Even battery-powered police hand-held radios have to be be recharged. Cell phones depend on power at the antenna towers. Generators are not a good solution because they depend on the availability of gasoline -- which fail when gasoline is not accessable. A new national communication system MUST be devised that operates on alternative energy sources and satellite communications. Much of the early TV coverage of the Katrina disaster only got through to us because the networks made use of crude, but effective, satellite phones.
3) It is not realistic to expect the U.S. government, or even state governments, to have adequate people and resources in place to handle a disaster of this size -- or to have them pre-positioned in just the right places at just the right times. There MUST be a national disaster plan that involves not only government and military personnel and resources, but also involves corporations, private businesses, local governments, individual volunteers, and agencies such as the Red Cross in a COORDINATED plan. How many web sites have we seen pop up that purport to link victims with their families? Shouldn't here be just one?
4) Back to communications, which is the single largest failure of the recent disaster. When police radio communication towers are down, when electrical power is off, when federal agencies can't talk to local agencies, when TV stations can't forward warnings to viewers, when residents don't know the seriousness of what's happening around them, it all spells a disaster of the worst magnitude. Again, a NATIONAL communications plan is required that not only dictates how communications between agencies and to the public happens, but also how the public receives emergency communications. This plan should include free hand-cranked radios and TV's, free FRS/Weather radios, cell phone alert and communication systems, neighborhood loudspeaker systems, underground cell-phone tower "silos" that raise during emergencies, personal satellite communications systems or emergency "locators" like those used in airplanes. Unfortunately, our country is very technically sophisticated, but little of that technology goes to the real benefit of our people when in need.
There were so many problems with the reaction to hurricane Katrina and so many Monday-morning- quarterbacks who think they know why. But the fact is that this disaster was of such immense proportions and scope that it overwhelmed our ability to plan, or even comprehend, such an event.
However, there are some important lessons that have been (hopefully) learned by this tragedy. Let me point out some of them.
1) Disaster plans for high-density urban areas occupied largely by poor, uneducated, and non-mobile people MUST be very different than for a relatively affluent, informed, highly mobile population. Mandatory evacuation orders mean nothing to someone who doesn't have the means, or desire, to evacuate -- or the educated realization that evacuation is in their best interest.
2) Communications systems, both official and public, fail when wide-spread electrical outages occur. All modern communications systems depend on the availability of conventional electrical power. Even battery-powered police hand-held radios have to be be recharged. Cell phones depend on power at the antenna towers. Generators are not a good solution because they depend on the availability of gasoline -- which fail when gasoline is not accessable. A new national communication system MUST be devised that operates on alternative energy sources and satellite communications. Much of the early TV coverage of the Katrina disaster only got through to us because the networks made use of crude, but effective, satellite phones.
3) It is not realistic to expect the U.S. government, or even state governments, to have adequate people and resources in place to handle a disaster of this size -- or to have them pre-positioned in just the right places at just the right times. There MUST be a national disaster plan that involves not only government and military personnel and resources, but also involves corporations, private businesses, local governments, individual volunteers, and agencies such as the Red Cross in a COORDINATED plan. How many web sites have we seen pop up that purport to link victims with their families? Shouldn't here be just one?
4) Back to communications, which is the single largest failure of the recent disaster. When police radio communication towers are down, when electrical power is off, when federal agencies can't talk to local agencies, when TV stations can't forward warnings to viewers, when residents don't know the seriousness of what's happening around them, it all spells a disaster of the worst magnitude. Again, a NATIONAL communications plan is required that not only dictates how communications between agencies and to the public happens, but also how the public receives emergency communications. This plan should include free hand-cranked radios and TV's, free FRS/Weather radios, cell phone alert and communication systems, neighborhood loudspeaker systems, underground cell-phone tower "silos" that raise during emergencies, personal satellite communications systems or emergency "locators" like those used in airplanes. Unfortunately, our country is very technically sophisticated, but little of that technology goes to the real benefit of our people when in need.
posted by Al Hearn at 8:19 PM
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