Here's my list of things that SHOULD have been done in New Orleans

[Lefty48197]

If I remember correctly, New Orleans was projected to be the target of the storm's wrath at least 2 full days before landfall. At that time, it was a category 5 storm, and the real possibility existed that Katarina could have reached land as a category 5. A whole lot of emergency plans should have been implemented at that time.

1) We need evacuation plans. - Every community is a potential target of one kind of disaster, or another. Every population center should have an evacuation plan. There should be an emergency plan in place to provide extra buses, trains, planes, whatever it takes to get people out. Somebody MUST know how to get gather these evacuation vehicles in the affected communities.
Some of the people that stayed in New Orleans did so because they did not have the economic means to get out. They didn't have anywhere else to go that was a short drive away, or they didn't even have a car. They couldn't afford a motel room 100 miles away. Whatever the reasons, there MUST be a way to identify these people who will leave, if they just have the means, and somewhere to go. That leads me to point #2:

2) There should be a plan to provide shelter to displaced citizens. There are any number of disasters, both natural, and other, that could displace huge numbers of citizens from any city in this country. Every single city should have a plan for providing temporary emergency shelter to the victims. Often gymnasiums are used. In New Orleans, they used the convention center, and then the Superdome. Later, they started evacuating people to Houston, but I get the feeling that these decisions were made "on the fly". These decisions don't need to be made on the fly. The police, fire departments, and other emergency workers should know where the emergency shelter is going to be. They should know what plan "B" is, in case plan "A" isn't available. They should have had a plan "C" and a plan "D", too.

There must be a plan to evacuate the hospitals. Every one of them nation wide should have an evacuation plan. There should be plans in place to transfer the patients to another hospital, and the other hospitals should have plans to accept large numbers of displaced patients. Somebody should know who to call to get the transport vehicles to the affected hospitals.


3) There must be a plan to provide necessities to the refugees. There must be a plan in place to gather those necessities, and deliver them to the refugee stations, and also to deliver them to the general population that doesn't go to the refugee stations. People in situations such as this need bottled water. They need food. They need baby formula. They need medicine and medical care. Then need clean clothing. They need sanitary facilities including toilets and showers. They need beds. It's not a huge list of necessities that most people will need to help them survive for a short period of time.

4) We need plans to provide security to affected regions. I certainly don't care if anybody is "stealing" food or water, or medical supplies. I don't even care too much if they're stealing blue jeans from the Walmart, but in New Orleans the worst in human nature was brought out of some people, and they turned some of the neighborhoods into battle zones. We need a way to provide the security that will protect the people from lawless violent acts. Whether it's the National Guard, or police brought in from neighboring communities, or states, there must be a plan to activate those units, and have them ready to go to work. For example, when New Orleans was identified as the likely target, a certain number of National Guard units should have been put on immediate alert, and they should have begun preparing to deploy. Likewise, neighboring police and fire departments should have put their members on alert, and begun preparing for a possible deployment.

5) We need plans to repair the infrastructure.
If bridges are destroyed, or water mains, or electrical and gas lines, we need plans to restore those services as quickly as possible. We need to assemble lists of the contractors and material suppliers who could possibly help replace utility systems that have been damaged or destroyed. I know the electrical utilities have good plans for getting their tradespeople to other cities, even if they're on the other side of the country. They also have plans to get the materials and equipment to those workers. The natural gas providers may have similar plans, but if not, then they certainly should.
What about the water mains? Do water departments have phone lists of all the neighboring water departments that could potentially provide crews, equipment, and materials to repair damaged systems? I doubt it. Many cities have special utility needs, such as New Orleans, and the elaborate system of pumps and pipes that keep the city dry. What plans did they have to repair that system in a catastrophic emergency? Was there a plan to bring in portable pumps that could help alleviate the problem? What about the levees? What is the emergency plan for repairing damaged levees? Plenty of other communities rely on them too. Again, you'll need skilled workers, and special materials and equipment to make repairs to systems like that.

Feel free to add anything to my list, that I might have missed...

[Igel]

1. Katrina became category 4, and then 5, very very

early Sunday morning.

Friday it's course was still miscalled. Things cleared up Saturday morning.

(1) NPR interviewed a professor who had been involved in NOLA's evacuation planning over the years. He said that the problem was always the poor without transportation, and no plans were ever drawn up for them that he heard about. (FEMA isn't to be the expert in every town and city; but it helps every town and city. In theory.)

(2) I agree.

(3) I also agree. They should have prepositioned a lot of food/water/medication in the Superdome and elsewhere. They flubbed it.

(4) I agree. The various National Guards should have been activated Sunday, if not Saturday. Where to put them, I don't know.

(5) I suspect that the utility companies have some clue as to how to react. In Rochester, when there was an ice storm, they had power crews from a half dozen cities in there within 24 hours. The city should coordinate with the utilities on this. In this case, since I suspect the utilities would coordinate regionally, it would be harder--MS and AL were hit, too.

I'd add (6), which has been cropping up with increasing regularity: Some sort of emergency communications system, both for remaining city/county workers, and for dealing with the populace that's left.

And (7), preplanning: At UCLA they'd tell every incoming student how to survive an earthquake; there were constant reminders on the radio and tv on earthquake preparedness. Many didn't follow the instructions: but enough people were trained in emergency procedures, and had batteries for radios, with food held in reserve to relieve the strain on the food sources that remain after a quake. They were always clear: plan on seeing nobody from any aid agencies or the government for 48-72 hours, minimum, after the disaster strikes.

[Winston702]

2. As per #5

There is a nationwide call for engineers of every stripe and classification.

I threw in my resume. Waiting to hear something so I can make arrangements with my boss.

[Igel]

7. Great.

I hope you go and do some good down there.

Russian/English translators aren't in high demand in NOLA currently; I've contemplated volunteering at the Reliant Center here in Houston, food distribution and the like, but have actually decided to wait a few weeks. Lots of people tend to sign up at first after a disaster, but lots bail after a few weeks--then they usually need people to help, but interest's waned, and with it the number of new volunteers.

[Princess Turandot]

3. You need to have a master plan...

for an anticipated crisis and a crisis command and control system set up. Who heads up the crisis table of organization depends upon the crisis. Each level in the T of O has to have its own command and control T of O, to make sure that people are doing their jobs and communicating.

NYC has had one for years. I'm only familiar in detail with the ones that hospitals are required to have. Medical assistance on 9-11 was quickly organized because every hospital in the area had an assigned role, and municipal authorities called the plan into motion and people moved into their assigned roles. Thank goodness the weather was good and a triage area was set up on a pier near the WTC and run by the closest major triage hospital. One hospital basically got the bulk of the deceased, private ferries were commandeered to take patients to NJ & Brooklyn since the water was more accessible than the streets were. I walked into the place where I was working and the first plane had just hit and was being shown on tv and still thought to be a private plane. By the time I got to the 15th floor and my office, the NYC emergency management system had implemented the crisis control system.

9-11 was a different type of disaster (although some people here are now being a bit too dismissive on how it affected the city's infrastructure and how that impacted the recovery process.) But even though NYC expected another terrorist attack to occur, no one could ever have imagined that those two buildings would collapse. There were major failures, particularly the loss of life associated with the bad communication systems of the fire department, and inter-agency squabbles between the police & fire department. But the loss of life was minimized and full-scale panic did not ensue, something that I still find mind boggling. Much of that I attribute to the fact that a catastrophe of some sort had been planned for, and when it occurred, people fell into their roles or got replaced, and there was enough flexibility in the plan to address changing situations.And most importantly, there was a sense of a plan being in place and being followed.

Maybe there were too many agencies and egos involved in the Katrina situation, and too many dodged catastrophes for all the powers to be to take this seriously. It's truly astonishing how this has been bungled.

[philarq]

4. When buses got to Houston---

Why didn't they load them with supplies to back with---obviously Houston was not destroyed, and had supplies, and the buses were going right where the supplies were needed.---Instead it looks like they all went back empty.

[Winston702]

5. It is Happening around the US

20 greyhound style coaches were loaded up with supplies and were followed by 10 semi's. I believe this method is being used.

For purposes of quick turn around may be why they are not taking the time to "reload" Also, it may be a worse seen if you were the first bus to show up at the Superdome full of stuff.

[MissB]

6. For #5, FEMA is already swinging into action.

They've awarded at least one multi-million dollar no-bid contract for infrastructure repair. I'm just guessing here - but there are probably more than that awarded at this point.