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Pastimes : Lake New Orleans -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (466)	9/6/2005 6:38:53 PM
From: aladin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1118

CB, I see a lot of criticism of the response by everyone. Bush supporters hitting on LA and NO Dems, Bush haters on Bush, pretty much everyone on FEMA. The reality is we need to know what FEMA chartered to do, and what is expected from each level of Government. Since you point out the window for evacuation was fairly short - we could at most have had one busload from the 350 buses (due to contraflow it would be a one way trip). Still - that would be at least 15,000 (with some luggage - the buses could not be full of just people). Planning needs to be done: #1 - We cannot expect sufficient resources at a Federal level to be available at all possible locations across the Nation immediately #2 - Due to #1 Local governments need to plan on keeping order for some reasonable time (to be negotiated, but likely 48-72 hours) #3 - State governments should order evacuations quicker and invite the Feds faster (or with Cat 4/5's pre-empt by inviting before landfall) #4 - Homeland Security and FEMA need an onsite Commander with sufficient communications resources within hours of #3 #5 - Homeland Security must mandate and do something with the incompatible radio systems in use in this country I was part of a briefing with DHS describing what an integrated Communications system could do at times like these, but the proposals are hopelessly mired in contractor politics. There is a couple of billion at stake and the legacy wireless vendors are defending their turf well. This is one area where I think there is legitimate criticisms, since this issue was central to the 9/11 findings. John

To: Ilaine who wrote (466)	9/6/2005 7:55:45 PM
From: KLP	Respond to of 1118

Hi CB....We got back Friday the 27th from our trip....re: Did you actually see the photos of the evacuation? They shut down interstate highways carrying traffic heading into New Orleans, reversed all highway traffic so only traffic heading out was allowed. They call this "contraflow." We saw TV coverage of evacuations from NO, particularly on Sat and Sun...I wondered why they didn't reverse much earlier all but one lane. They didn't on Saturday for sure. We saw huge numbers of cars going out, and mostly open lanes coming in with just a few trucks... I recall that remained that way as well into Sunday afternoon...would have to re-view the video to be sure when the lanes were all going outbound on Sunday.... The hurricane hit as it was predicted to hit, early Monday morning about 6-7 AM Aug 30. 8888888888888888888888888 Started at 4 p.m. Saturday, continued through Sunday. By Sunday afternoon, there was no gas to be had in New Orleans. No rental cars. No airplanes. No room on the buses. It took 8 hours just to get onto the Interstate heading out of town. 27 hours to get to Houston. Three old people that were on a bus headed to Baton Rouge died of dehydration before they even got there. 90 mile trip. Remember, Katrina was a Cat 1 when it crossed Florida and went into the Gulf. The storm was a Cat 5 on Sunday. By the time it hit Monday morning, it was a Cat 4. By the end of the evening on Monday, I wondered, as did many of us, if the press and the weather forcasters both had hyped this.... On Tuesday morning, the levees broke and were overtopped with HUGE storm surges. Again, I wonder exactly what the First Responders were supposed to do during this period. The Fire Department woman who came to speak to us on "Surviving a Disaster" --man made or Mother Nature made--- said the First Responders were the Police and Fire Departments, and NG if needed for the first 72-96 hours (3 to 4 days)!! THAT's why the Fire Departments are going around giving the lectures....They need the citizens to do our job and be prepared as well as we can be for at least that long. I know you are. I don't feel we are as much as we need to be. BUT I also know that most of the time, disasters don't happen at our whim--we may not be home--we may need supplies in our offices, cars or boats, or other places we might be as well. The biggest concern I have for my family and friends is having enough water. Not a few bottles, but some water for everyone for the 72-96 hours at least. If our communities don't have large amounts stored, then what? (I do have several containers filled and now are ice in the freezer)...They can thaw. As someone put it recently, with a hurricane (he was from FL), you usually have advance notice, and can try to get out of the way. With earthquakes, (we are from WA), you have NO warning at all. You just have to deal with whatever is dealt to you. 8888888888888888888888888888888888 Anyway, where do you put 1.5 million people (that's the number that live in the metro area). What would Seattle do if someone set off a dirty bomb in the harbor, or North Korea or China hit you with a bomb? This is probably the reason I've given it so much thought....In the case of hurricanes, or fires, etc....We could try to get out of the way ASAP. That's why the bus situation in NO should have been an excellent resource. Was it because the media had called "wolf" one too many times, or was it because we, ourselves "didn't think it would be that bad"... Why didn't the Mayor call a State of Emergency and mandatory evacuation at the first notice of impending doom...And that happened while we were gone...sometime around the 23, 24, 25, 26th or so of the week BEFORE it hit... Hindsight is perfect, but really, from that prism, shouldn't he have done that? I think so. We can always go back if there is something to go back to, and if we can get out in time. And most of us read the papers, watch TV, listen to radio, and some are on Internet.... What were the Mayor and Governor thinking? And for that matter, what were the citizens themselves thinking? Some of there are still there intentionally!!!!! The difference again in a hurricane, and the examples you brought forward above...is "Do we have time to get out of the way from either of those events".... In a hurricane, yes. In a tornado...maybe not. In an earthquake, or a dirty bomb or worse attack, no, no chance to get out of the way at all. We'd better have supplies ourselves. And hope like hell we have some First Responders that have been doing their job until the 2nd team can get to us. If there is still a 2nd team left.