Katrina Lessons: Planning and More Planning

Watching the 5th anniversary news shows on Hurricane Katrina and its devastation reminded me of how quickly we forget. Our daily lives get in the way of keeping such a tragedy at the forefront. The pictures were even more shocking today, watching what happened at the Super Dome and on rooftops and on bridges. Or I should say, what didn’t happen.

I heard more than one commentator say something like, “if we can get aid to Haiti and to Pakistan and to a number of other foreign countries within days, if not hours, than how could what happened in New Orleans have occurred?” Where were the airlifted food and water drops? Why did it take four days to get troops in place?

Never mind the poor and inadequate pre-planning that should have been done by the city, the state, and the feds. We can’t change that now but we sure can change the planning for such an emergency response when a disaster strikes again as it surely will.

The government can maintain stockpiles of water and MREs all over the country. By rotating the stock in the normal course of daily use, there will always be a supply in warehouses around our many military bases. Contracts with bottled water makers, food purveyors, and other necessities can be in place for a quick response using trucks or a few spare Air Force C-5s which we have all over the country. If we can deploy a “surge” to the Middle East, how about the same for the Midwest, or the southeast…you get the picture.

Finally, we have to train our citizens to have a plan of their own, especially when they live in an area where natural disasters occur. Families should have contact plans, phone trees, meeting sites, and the like in place before they are needed. It was said that even with the evacuation order in New Orleans (given a little late), many people did not have the means to move out of the way. Maybe true with elderly or the disabled, but in the case of Katrina, there was enough time to walk north far enough to avoid the flooding before the levees failed. To heck with your property, lives are far more precious and finding a ride or walking would have been better than living in the Super Dome, or worse, drowning. The government can’t do it all, but it should have its own plan of action, plus should actively encourage all citizens to have plans and “go-bags” of their own.

What happened in New Orleans five years ago should never happen again. Unfortunately, it will.