![]() ![]() Was there lawlessness at times? Absolutely. But the far more important question is, were the conditions in the convention center nearly inhuman? Yes. Were some apocryphal stories reported? I am sure. Yet today I heard one Congressman complain about the “hysteria of the media coverage”? Without broadcasting those devastating photos from the superdome and the convention center, it's unclear how long it would have taken before someone in a position of authority actually responded. Are they suggesting this was somehow not a humanitarian disaster? The FEMA director found out about the lack of food and water from the media! But for the media and the public outcry, those numbers would have been higher. Rather than celebrating the news, some officials are trying to justify their inaction by pinning the blame on the never quite defined "media." It is particularly ironic when some of the same people who should have acted earlier - response teams, local and federal officials - are saying, "They reported rumors and exaggeration," "They failed to confirm reports etc." This after the total death toll in New Orleans was far lower than the 10,000 some had predicted. ![]() Officials say only 10 bodies were found - far fewer than many expected. The latest so-called controversy comes now that the superdome and convention center have finally been cleared out. Then we‘ll have nothing more than a card in the blame game, which says go back to start. We need solutions to the problems of communication in the aftermath of disaster, solutions as to how to better coordinate the response.Īs everyone points at everyone else, I’m afraid that few are going to make concrete changes, and that when the next major hurricane hits, we‘ll hear again that it was unprecedented. That will keep the prices down and prevent politically connected companies from getting sweetheart deals as may have been the case in Mississippi. Contracts should be signed well ahead of time for companies to engage in the clean up. Evacuation plans should be in place to effectively move hundreds of thousands of people. New buildings near the coast should be built to withstand major winds. Massive hurricanes will hit the area again, period. Unprecedented? How could that possibly be the explanation weeks after Katrina?įrom now on, no government official should be defending inaction or poor planning by saying a hurricane is unprecedented. The other perhaps more important part is taking steps now to prepare.Īre there new plans in place in the event another hurricane strikes the region? Weeks after Katrina, the Texas Department of Transportation spokesperson said on this show that Hurricane Rita was “unprecedented” and that explained why there were not better able to prevent the 100-mile long traffic jams outside of Houston. ![]() But the blame game is only part of the solution. So you get so political that we may not get the answers we need and, as I‘ve said before, to blame everyone is to effectively blame no one. Local officials have generally blamed the feds. We‘ve seen former FEMA Director Michael Brown blaming local officials. Now, it appears it‘s not going to be an easy task. Not just to ensure we learn lessons but so that we can get rid of the incompetence. I‘ve said in previous blogs and shows that we need to figure out who is to blame for the response to Katrina. Preparing for the unprecedented (Dan Abrams) ![]()
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