It really is frustrating. Most every time I blog it seems there's a new government report being released on how unprepared the nation is for another disaster. Oh, how I long to make a blog entry that starts with "DHS Confident Nation Is Prepared!"
Unfortunately, today is not that day. In yet
another report on the failed response to Hurricane Katrina, the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) found that most American cities and states remain unprepared for catastrophes, and called the shortcomings in emergency planning a cause for "significant national concern."According to the AP, the report, delivered to Congress Thursday night but not released to the public, indicates that local response plans for major disasters are often antiquated and uncoordinated, and concludes on the following note:
We rely to a troubling extent on plans that are created in isolation, are insufficiently detailed and are not subject to adequate review. Time and again, these factors extract a severe penalty in the midst of a crisis: precious time is consumed in the race to correct the misperceptions of federal, state and local responders about roles, responsibilities and actions. The result is uneven performance and repeated and costly operational miscues.
If there is a silver lining, it may be this: according to the AP, the DHS found that 18 hurricane-prone states along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts appeared to be better prepared for disasters than the rest of the country, and were judged by peers to have emergency plans "that were more likely to be rated sufficient... than other states."
At first blush that sounds encouraging. However, in
the FRC's most recent report we found that,
when it comes to the ability of emergency personnel to talk to one another, in many states throughout the hurricane-prone southeast emergency communications are largely inadequate. That begs the question, "If DHS thinks the southeast is prepared, then just how
unprepared is the rest of the nation?"
