Klarinet Archive - Posting 000010.txt from 2005/09

From: "R. Williams" <rwilliams@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] OT: Re: evacuations from New Orleans
Date: Fri, 02 Sep 2005 08:20:55 -0400

The criticism and recriminations being leveled regarding Katrina and New
Orleans I suppose is a natural outgrowth of people watching from the
sidelines. I can tell you from personal experience however that when you
are on the ground at the disaster things are not so clear.

If this had occurred 10 years ago it is most likely that I and seven other
people from our water rescue unit would have been on a plane heading
there. I've been involved in county, state and national disaster planning
as well so I've seen first hand what goes into it. So let's take a quick
look at some issues.

New Orleans has for years known that it was at risk from exactly the type
of situation that occurred and the first line of defense was the levee
system. The simple answer as to why the levee system wasn't built to
withstand a storm of this magnitude is lack of will. At the local/state
political level such projects are looked at from the standpoint impact on
everything other than safety. Will the levee restrict a scenic view by
tourists? Will the project displace homes and businesses? What are the
odds of a cat 4/5 storm hitting, hasn't yet! Then the finale; how much
will it cost. Even if the state and local governments are determined, they
must compete with people such as Kennedy and his billion dollar hole
digging project in Massachusetts for money! Louisiana is neither rich nor
politically powerful.

There is also a very real resistance among political leaders when it comes
to looking stupid and that acts as a delaying factor in implementing
disaster plans. Calling up a large scale response, even if the plans are
in place can cost millions of dollars. So people sit with their finger on
the buttons afraid to push. Choose wrong and you loose your job and
career, namely because the critics being heard now are just as vocal when
you err on the side of safety.

Next question is evacuation. The question; "why didn't they force people
to leave" is a bit naive. The simple fact is that short of using armed
troops willing to shoot people, you cannot forcibly evacuate people who
don't want to leave. I've personally had people I was trying to evacuate
from flood areas point rifles at me. Well guess what, they stayed because
there is neither the time nor resources to deal with people like that.

The second evacuation question is why the New Orleans and state officials
didn't provide transportation for people who did want to leave but didn't
have the means. That's a fair question. I think the numbers I've heard
are that around 200,000 people remained in the city and surrounding
area. If you cram a bus full you can get maybe 60 people on one so that's
3,334 busses. Then after running the risk of putting thousands of
additional people on ground zero, you'll still have several thousand if not
tens of thousands still in the area.

Realistically, taking into account the real world resistance to pushing the
button and risking Katrina taking a hard right and totally missing the
area, they had maybe 24-30 hours to get the busses and trucks on site, get
the people at collection points etc. Even the National Guard when on alert
would take 24 hours or better to respond. Time is the real issue. The
rule of thumb to evacuate a city is that it takes a week or better.

Before getting off the soapbox there is one additional point I'd like to
make. I consistently hear people saying; "the government had a
responsibility to whatever." Well what about our responsibility? Who here
can hold up there hand and say that they called a public official an
expressed concerns about New Orleans or anything else. What happened to
the "WE" in We the People? What happened to personal responsibility? For
close to 20 years I and thousands of others put our hides on the line to
protect and save people and then get nothing but why didn't you do
more? Well if you aren't at the town board asking questions and at the
next budget meeting, then you share responsibility.

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