Flutterby™! : Katrina response

I'm not going to pile on to the "response to the New Orleans disaster could have been better" bandwagon. One of my grandfathers' life's work was emergency response, I mentioned before that at 84 he was sent his "Fireman First Class" certificate, he worked with various New York agencies and the Red Cross in public safety and disaster planning.

When we last talked before his death, one of the concerns he had with one of the planning groups he was involved in was a storm surge scenario that could cause devastation in parts of Long Island similar to what's currently being seen in New Orleans. There are vulnerabilities everywhere, in hindsight there will always have been shortcuts that "should not" have been taken, money that "should" have been spent, and there is some potential disaster looming over right where you live that you are not prepared for.

And risk versus reward calculations are a tricky thing.

That having been said, the Department of Homeland Security offers as one of departmental realignments that it is tasked to:

• Improve National Response and Recovery Efforts by Focusing FEMA on Its Core Functions. FEMA will report directly to the Secretary of Homeland Security. In order to strengthen and enhance our Nation’s ability to respond to and recover from manmade or natural disasters, FEMA will now focus on its historic and vital mission of response and recovery.

Well, yes, it seems that adding another bureacratic layer of political patronage and graft above FEMA was a bad idea. Go figure. Hey, eighty billion bucks a year spent on "no fly" lists and whiz-bang security technology which doesn't work doesn't make us safer. Whoah. So contact your elected representatives and tell 'em that you prefer programs that work to political posturing.

And then make sure that you've taken care of yourself. Figure out how you're going to get water if everything goes to hell, and if you're in coastal plain that means either reverse osmosis or stockpiled water. Make an emergency plan; both Charlene and I have target locations in the event of something going bad and communications going down, hers involves her job so that makes that part both easier and harder. Have some extra canned food and dry goods in the cupboard. And just because of where we live we've got a couple of gallons of gas stashed that we rotate through as we get low, this isn't always possible to do safely.

Finally, just as we're hearing reports of tourists who were told not to evacuate before the storm arranging their own evacs, and then having those vehicles commandeered, understand that what the authorities tell you is a guideline. My years of swift-water experience have taught me that with a little bit of experience and caution my own judgement is as good or better than most police or rescue people. Use their commands as information in making your decision, but don't assume that their judgement is better than yours, and sometimes you have to say "yes, officer", and then do the right thing anyway.

And if you're in a place where the cops have been notoriously corrupt for decades, then, yeah, assume that they'll be looting too.