N.O. Times-Picayune on what went wrong in the relief effort

[kwassa]

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/

Political storm brewing over Katrina disaster
By JOHN McQUAID
Staff writer

excerpt:

Bill Lokey, chief coordinator for FEMA, said agencies were simply overwhelmed by the scale of the challenge. "It's the nature of the disaster," he said. "This is far beyond anything we've ever done in this country. It's beyond our immediate capabilities for sure."

Lokey said rescue workers have been hampered by floodwaters, and by the fact that many of the resources they needed were not available nearby and had to be brough in. And because the storm damage was spread across three states, FEMA's resources have also been spread out, he said.

(jump)

DHS had no master plan on aimed specifically at addressing the New Orleans catastrophe. Officials attending last year's simulation - which included tabletop exercises on the response to a fictional Hurricane Pam that flooded the city - produced a document with many contingency plans, Beriwal said. For example, officials agreed that Fish and Wildlife service personnel would rescue people and ferry them to city access points for transport out. But the simulation was just an early stage of a multi-year effort to develop a comprehensive plan - one that had been delayed by 9/11 and competing priorities.

(much more at the site)

[FloridaPat]

1. I find it really hard to believe that a city can be 200 years old and

there is no hurricane evacuation plan. Or even hurricane plan. I know several years ago all the cities had to do an atomic bomb evacuation plan. That was based on evacuating a city becaue we knew a bomb was coming. They could have used that even.

However, every disaster has always had the national guard there the next day. And we know where the guard was.

[nyhuskyfan]

2. There was a plan for the Hurricane...

The initial blow of the Hurricane wasn't the problem. They ordered the mandatory evacuation and set up the Superdome as a shelter, which withstood the brunt of the storm. After that, came the flood, which is where FEMA should come in.

Also, Project Impact was a part of FEMA created by Clinton which was designed to increase disaster preparations and improve resources for local governments to educate people on how to handle diasters. Bush cut it in March of 2001.

[krkaufman]

3. Permalink to story....

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_09.html#076488