Katrina: What to Do/Lessons
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The Bush Administration is muffing Katrina. An administration that is strong on talk and weak on performance. It also appears that Governor Blanco has dropped the ball.
Every few years we have hurricanes that cause major damage.
Hurricanes are inevitable,
major damage is inevitable.
Why does failure to learn and failure to act have to be inevitable?
Before Katrina Hit
Katrina was forecast to hit New Orleans with category 5 winds five days before it hit. Eight days later the Bush Administration announced a cabinet task force. Days later the Navy dispatched ships from Norfolk, VA. The ships would take more days to arrive.
The ships should have been dispatched around August 27. The Navy should have sent every available LHA's (light helicopter assault ships with 25 helicopters that can carry 8000 to 16,000 pounds of cargo). There are six.
In addition the LHA's carry multiple landing craft, hard-hulled and air-cushion which can carry tons of food, water, medical supplies and Marines. They can be used for support and evacuation.
Source: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/lha-1-av.htm
The LHA Bataan arrived at New Orleans on September 5th, after floating in the Gulf for 6 days.
Anticipating Public Needs
Hundreds
of thousands of the poor stayed in New Orleans and the surrounding parishes as
was predicted years earlier.
The water, electricity and sewers were expected to fail according to the
scenarios used in disaster exercises. People were going to need food,
water and a means to dispose of human waste. The governor should have
taken over all the food stores and allowed people to collect food under state
supervision.
The
state should have distributed thousands folding toilets and hundreds of
thousands of disposable plastic bags. As it stands now New Orleans has
tons human feces mixing with the floodwaters. Avoidable.
It
was a near certainty that the levees would be breached. They were designed
for category 3 hurricanes. Katrina was a 5 and then a 4.
The
army and the National Guard should have distributed thousands of rubber boats.
There are dead bodies. The state or federal governments should provide
body bags.
Nobody
is in Charge
Small
AM/FM radios should have been distributed so the authorities could inform the
residents and direct them to aid and to constructive activities.
Don't
Cry, Organize
People
in New Orleans are acting like demoralized Ethiopians, waiting for aid.
It's time for self-help and small organizations. People should be
organized into small groups and pick leaders. Then the groups should start
clean up.
Thousands
of people, sitting around idle, is stupid and dangerous. The mayor should
lead the clean up.
The
groups should have priorities such as sanitation, food and water, security,
clearing roads, teaching the children, writing down personal histories, and
getting complete databases of everyone. These behaviors should
be taught in the schools of America and on TV before disasters.
Battery
powered cell phone towers should be available. It should be a condition of
a cell phone franchise that the cell phone companies maintain battery-powered
back-up towers that can be flown in within hours. Computer manufacturers,
as good public relations, should provide wireless computers.
Food
and water, radios and waste bags should be dropped by parachute if necessary.
Tote that Barge
Filling
the gaps in the levees with thousands of sandbags is too slow. Tow barges
or large boats filled to capacity with sand and rocks to the gaps in the levees. Use cables to keep
the boats over the gaps or just up stream. Then scuttle and sink them. Finish the
gap filling with sand bags.
After the Deluge
House Speaker Hastert has questioned the reasonableness of just rebuilding New Orleans as it was, below sea level. Paris and London were rebuilt after disasters -- better than before. So could New Orleans. The residents should be allowed to find their mementos and pets. Many of the buildings in the lower areas are tear-downs. Just bulldoze the neighborhoods and cover the area with rock and gravel up to 10 feet above flood level. Give the property owners their same rights to the areas. Use the opportunity to bury all the utility lines.
Summary: Expect Problems
America
is a big country, with lots of resources and lots of threats, foreign and
domestic. We can afford to plan for problems and require that our water,
power and communication utilities build back-up capabilities that are shared
across the nation.
Americans
should be trained in school and on TV to organize in the face of disasters.
Clifford W. Lazar email a Comment
Los Angeles, CA USA
9/2/05
Lessons from Katrina. Hurricane clean up Failure to act using the military