Friday Morning at the Doom Room (we are not prepared)

[donsu]

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/06/04/con06132.html


This just in: we're nowhere near being ready for the next big disaster, natural or terrorist-inflicted. Our local, state and especially federal agencies just are not fully prepared for catastrophes sent down upon us, as one emergency management expert says, "by angry gods or angry men."

-snip-

Titled "Cities at Risk -- Planning for Catastrophe -- The Benefits of Hindsight," it featured a compelling combination of panelists, including two former directors of the Federal Emergency Management Agency: James Lee Witt, the much praised FEMA head during the Clinton years; and Michael Brown, the much maligned FEMA chief forced to resign during the Katrina debacle. (An audience member briefly heckled him with several taunts of "Heckuva job, Brownie," but soon shut up. Either he ran out of material, was forcibly removed from the hall or Tasered into submission.)

The conference came on the heels of the announcement that the acting director of FEMA, R. David Paulison, former fire chief of Miami-Dade, Florida, has been given the job full-time, pending Senate confirmation. This, after the position had been offered to, and turned down by, the most experienced disaster managers in the country. All of them, the New York Times reported, were, "unconvinced that the administration is serious about fixing or that there is enough time to get it done before President Bush's second term ends."

Both Brown and Witt said they wouldn't have taken it either. "If I had been Mr. Paulison, I'd have said you can take it and put it somewhere," Witt declared. Unless the government removes FEMA from the Department of Homeland Security, he said, and "puts it back as an independent, cabinet-level agency, Paulison is headed for failure."

-snip-

"The problem is that Katrina presented that template brilliantly; it was not just foreseeable, it was foreseen -- obviously catastrophic -- and yet we were manifestly unprepared for it. So the fact that we're not prepared for a disaster that we can predict with near mathematical precision necessarily means we aren't prepared for a terrorist attack for which there will be no warning."

As a guy I know in the demolition business says, when things go wrong, "That's a big, 'Oh my.'" The release of the New York City 911 operator tapes from September 11 reminds us that our various emergency communications systems remain incompatible and inefficient. A Senate panel is told the Washington, DC, area still has no coherent emergency plan. A recent report warns that any military action against Iran may unleash a new wave of terrorist attacks in the United States. And hurricane season is only six weeks away.

Fasten your seatbelts.
-----------------------------------------


are you prepared for a cat. 6 storm or event?

we are on our own.

[Vincardog]

1. This is what happens when the people in charge of the government

do not believe the government has a role in helping or protecting people.
To sum up the NeoConvicts attitude
"I got mine FU".

[Horse with no Name]

2. In my area of Texas

I thought the only thing we had to worry about was tornadoes.
However, I found that during Hurricane Rita, we were forecast hurricane conditions this far north.
I wasn't prepared--I had to build the dog a shelter that was adequate.
I lived down on the coast before and everyone knew how to prepare.
Scary up here that people weren't putting their garbage cans away or removing their lawn jockeys or garden trolls.
Of course, boarding the windows was a little over the top this far inland, but Walmart removed EVERYTHING from their lots--including the trampoline that hangs on the side and even all of their garden stuff.
I have a feeling this year is not going to be good for the Gulf Coast at all, but I seriously think that people as far inland as I am are going to have to prepare for the brunt of the storms as well. Without any federal help.
Just ask the people that were in the way of Katrina and Rita last year.