Katrina / New Orleans disaster is first real test for new Department of Homeland Security - 2-Sep-05 - Generational Dynamics

Generational Dynamics Web Log for 2-Sep-05

Katrina / New Orleans disaster is first real test for new Department of Homeland Security

Resembling a theatre of war, a million desperate refugees have been evacuating New Orleans first to escape the hurricane, and then to escape starvation, disease and ravaging looters in what President Bush has called "one of the worst natural disasters in our nation's history."

If the disaster can be said to have any bright side at all, it's that it provides the first major test of the ability of the Department of Homeland Security to organize and coordinate the response to a national disaster.

This isn't an idle consideration. It just six weeks ago that General Zhu Chenghu, a top-level officer in China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) threatened America with nuclear war if America interfered with Taiwan. Speaking to a group of foreign journalists, General Zhu said,

"If the Americans are determined to interfere [then] we will be determined to respond. We . . . will prepare ourselves for the destruction of all of the cities east of Xian. Of course the Americans will have to be prepared that hundreds . . . of cities will be destroyed by the Chinese."

This is the kind of war scenario that America is unprepared to handle, but the Katrina disaster is giving Americans a small taste of what to expect.

In response, President Bush and Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff announced a massive response, involving almost every agency of the federal government. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is focusing on emergency aid to victims. The Energy Department is working to restore electricity. The EPA is issuing waivers to make more gasoline available. The Department of Defense is moving 8 Navy ships into the area, with water, food, medicine, hospital facilities and berthing. The Department of Health and Human Services has declared a public health emergency, and is providing medical supplies.

But the massive effort has already run into a number of glitches:

It took the better part of three days to mobilize the effort, thanks to rules that require the city and state to be the first responders, leaving the federal government's role reduced at first, with little planning for local and federal coordination.

Despite decades of repeated warnings about the levees that protect the city from flooding, officials were unprepared for the levees' collapse and the subsequent flooding that ended up doing more damage than the hurricane itself.

Evacuation was incomplete, and those remaining were left with no food, drinkable water, electricity or communications.

The size of this disaster has awakened a lot of people, especially those in younger generations who are complacent about everything. Just Thursday afternoon, for example, the city of Boston has announced that it will do a thorough review and update of its disaster plan. As the "clash of civilizations" world war approaches, steps taken now in response to the Katrina disaster will serve America well later. (2-Sep-05) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 2-Sep-05 Katrina / New Orleans disaster is first real test for new Department of Homeland Security

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 2-Sep-05
Katrina / New Orleans disaster is first real test for new Department of Homeland Security