The ongoing disaster in the gulf states has captured a lot of my attention this week, and it's certainly caused me to think of a lot of trhings. One of the questions I really don't know the answer to concerns our profession. Does anyone know whether the local, state, or federal emergency management agencies have any sort of agreements "in place" with the companies that own heavy equipment? It's obvious that in almost any large scale disaster that involves destruction of property or infrastructure, heavy equipment is one of the necessary components of response and later, recovery. Whether it's flooding, or earthquake, or perhaps tornadoes, there is always a need for machinery to assist in dealing with the crisis. Does FEMA own any equipment? Certainly the military does, but they may not be in a position to respond most quickly. Local and state governments do, but there resources are limited. Have the EMAs contacted the people who have equipment available and made any sort of pre-need arrangements, or do they pick up a soggy copy of the yellow pages and start looking for help?
When the 9-11 terrorist atacks happened I remember reading that the Emergency Management type agencies around here did already have relationships & agreements with certain construction type companies for help in large scale search & rescue operations. That's why that effort in NYC & DC went so smoothly. If I recall correctly they had heavy equipment on site & operating at both sites within 12 - 24 hours. Most metropolitan areas probably have such arrangements. I can't remember if FEMA also had such arrangements,or how involved they were at that level. From what I've read over the past 2 weeks about NO they surely had no such arrangements set up.
From what I've read, if they did have such agreements set up in NO, they weren't smart enough to remember with whom...
I'm beginning to understand what all this finger pointing has been about now. It seems that those who screamed first and loudest are appearing to be the ones that dropped the ball in this effort. From what I've read there were plans put in place for such an incident, but no one called for them to commence!
Yeah, they had it all figured out, and published online. Check out the Emergency guide for citizens . Be prepared to spend quite a while reading, if you want to go from beginning to end. It seems to me that everybody probably thought they'd look pretty stupid evacuating half a million people if it then failed to rain. Now they look *really* stupid and need someone else to blame.
From what I've read about emergency planning in general, it's always the local authority's responsibility to initiate disaster planning, and mitigation efforts. State and Federal authorities are responsible for assisting the locals, at the locals' requests. Seems many jurisdictions take this responsibility seriously, and many others don't. Take a look around your community - Do you have a search and rescue team, or not? Do you have a local, or regional HAZMAT reaction team? Where's the nearest HAZMAT disaaster containment and decontamination team? Those communities that have this stuff have assessed their needs and applied for the grants. Those that dont, didn't. Seems like there's several volunteer firemen and medical response guys among us - How good is your equipment? Have everything you really need? This is a responsibility of local government, and a cost to the local taxpayer. Some places are richer than others, and some areas are more progressive than others. Still, if your house is on fire, or your child injured at the local football game, or your brother trapped by a mud slide in the ditch you just dug, are you confident that everything necessary to minimize the injury, or prevent the death is gonna show up in time to save the day? As for specifics, my reading tells me that the New Orleans administration is less than forward thinking, and finally got caught at not taking care of the people who elected them to office. They just didn't find themselves several feet below sea level overnight, they've been there for years. Who was supposed to call for an evacuation? The local officials. And who is now complaining the loudest? The local officials. I'm real sorry that many people lost lives and property in the flood. Still, in the cold hard light of reality, I think we'll see in the long run, that New Orleans officials failed to take responsibility, and helped to create, or at least worsen, the disaster that befell them. I spent six months of my life living on a garrison across the bridge from Downtown New Orleans, and I never felt good about looking up off the second floor balcony at the top of the levee. Since I retired from the Army, I've spent time and effort towards training myself for the next disaster. To that end, I've become the training officer for the local search and rescue team, become a First Responder, begun training as a firefighter and taken courses to become a Certified Emergency Manager. I'm not seeking glory here, but insuring that I can react to protect my family, and community against the next disaster, be it terroristic, natural, or accidental. All this is long winded, and possibly irritating, but ask yourself - Where's your crew first aid kit? Got a good, current, fire extinguisher on your fuel truck? Who in your crew can administer first aid, or CPR? Everyone have safety glasses and gloves? Just remember, everything starts at home.