Posted by The Crux |
The Bush Administration again showed its penchant for secrecy and aversion to learning from history. The Washington Post reported:
"A decision by the Bush administration to rewrite in secret the nation's emergency response blueprint has angered state and local emergency officials, who worry that Washington is repeating a series of mistakes that contributed to its bungled response to Hurricane Katrina nearly two years ago.
"State and local officials in charge of responding to disasters say that their input in shaping the National Response Plan was ignored in recent months by senior White House and Department of Homeland Security officials, despite calls by congressional investigators for a shared overhaul of disaster planning in the United States."
People with real disaster-management experience aren't happy. Alabama's emergency management chief Bruce Baughman told the Post:
"I don't have any problems with a framework . . . but it's not a plan . . . and it's not national. Who are we fooling here?"
Given Katrina, you'd think the Administration would go for better coordination with states. Why do the President's people keep choosing illogical, potentially disastrous courses of action? Are they suffering what therapists call "addiction to failure"?
Emergency-management veteran Albert Ashwood said:
"It seems that the Katrina federal legacy is one of minimizing exposure for the next event and ensuring future focus is centered on state and local preparedness" (WaPo)
In other words, let's make it so we can legally blame the locals.
Solares Hill blog (a Key West newspaper, ) summed up the situtation this way:
"Next time a hurricane comes a-walloping, don't count on the feds to ride to the rescue (a lesson already painfully learned by the people of New Orleans)."
Key West's highest point soars 18 feet above sea level. For obvious reasons, Keys residents take hurricanes seriously.
They didn't always. I lived in KW in the '90s. Early on, many of us would stock up on party supplies after learning that a hurricane was heading toward Cuba. Hurricanes excited us, because no serious ones had hit KW since the '60s. 
That attitude changed in 1992, after Hurricane Andrew ravaged Homestead. I remember seeing a tall hotel in the distance while driving on the turnpike: huge slabs of concrete had been ripped off, and bent steel beams stuck out like spider legs.
In 2005, Hurricane Wilma put parts of the Keys' under water, as shown by Mike Hentz's photo. Note: Palm trees don't grow in salt water; and I think the area off frame to the right is the Publix Plaza parking lot. Wilma ruined many houses and cars.
My point: even weaker-than-Katrina hurricanes can do serious harm to people and property. It's unconscionable for government officials to even think about disaster planning in terms of how to blame someone else or avoid spending money.
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