Life Is Not Purgatory
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Billion Dollar Boondoggle (Part 2 of ?)
After Katrina hit I saw a picture that really infuriated me… an aerial photograph of a school bus yard underwater in New Orleans with at least a hundred parked school buses just sitting there unused, and underwater. How many more thousands of people could have been evacuated if the government had pressed that bus fleet into service? How many more would have lived?
It is important to understand that a major stumbling block in these sorts of situations is one of jurisdiction. In Canada, we have a very powerful federal government and both public security and emergency preparedness are federal responsibilities, however, in the United States that authority is divested on under funded local and state agencies… Do the Mayor and Governor deserve a share of responsibility – Absolutely! As much as going to land upon them – Definitely Not.
Volunteers firefighters from all over the US were turned away on the orders of the FEMA chief, Homeland Security workers were not diverted from other duties until almost 12 hours after Katrina had left New Orleans in ruins, and even then were given days to arrive at the affected areas… the response by FEMA to this disaster will be used a Case Study on institutional chaos in the future – and hopefully someone will learn from it.
A disaster response is always barely controlled chaos on almost every area for the relief and recovery effort, and while the need to coordinate is vital, there is always a shortage of skilled manpower – you can always make do with more people, but the magnitude to stress increases exponentially with less people than you need.
My time at the Red Cross was short, but one of the most important things I learned was never turn down help: even if they are incompetent in one arena – they can turn out to be invaluable in another.
After Katrina hit I saw a picture that really infuriated me… an aerial photograph of a school bus yard underwater in New Orleans with at least a hundred parked school buses just sitting there unused, and underwater. How many more thousands of people could have been evacuated if the government had pressed that bus fleet into service? How many more would have lived?
It is important to understand that a major stumbling block in these sorts of situations is one of jurisdiction. In Canada, we have a very powerful federal government and both public security and emergency preparedness are federal responsibilities, however, in the United States that authority is divested on under funded local and state agencies… Do the Mayor and Governor deserve a share of responsibility – Absolutely! As much as going to land upon them – Definitely Not.
Volunteers firefighters from all over the US were turned away on the orders of the FEMA chief, Homeland Security workers were not diverted from other duties until almost 12 hours after Katrina had left New Orleans in ruins, and even then were given days to arrive at the affected areas… the response by FEMA to this disaster will be used a Case Study on institutional chaos in the future – and hopefully someone will learn from it.
A disaster response is always barely controlled chaos on almost every area for the relief and recovery effort, and while the need to coordinate is vital, there is always a shortage of skilled manpower – you can always make do with more people, but the magnitude to stress increases exponentially with less people than you need.
My time at the Red Cross was short, but one of the most important things I learned was never turn down help: even if they are incompetent in one arena – they can turn out to be invaluable in another.
