Be Prepared
BE PREPARED
Mama read the skies accurately. A bad storm was coming. There was no time to waste. She gave the older boys the job of protecting the garden, a valuable family resource. It was located on a ridge which lay a few feet lower than the road and the boy’s job was to enlarge the ruts in the sandy road so as to lead the rain to follow the road, rather than overflow into the garden. The kids did their job well.
The storm was approaching fast as the clouds turned the day into night as the winds picked up with a deafening roar. The family gathered in the kitchen and huddled under the heavy table until the storm passed by. The next morning the family went up the road a short distance and looked across the valley to view the storm’s damage, a swath of broken or uprooted trees about a hundred yards wide, extending the length of vision from left to right. We were all deeply impressed with the destructive power of this tornado, and happy to have escaped injury or damage.
The Tuscaloosa County tornado is not comparable to Hurricane Katrina. However, remembering it brings to mind a few facts that appear significant. The Clements family didn’t have television, radio or telephone to give an advance warning of the approaching tornado. There was no weather channel showing the storm’s location and the path it was expected to follow.
The modern facilities of the weather forecasting agencies enabled people all over the nation to receive hour to hour facts about Katrina’s power, speed and accurately predicted path. These data were available from the date the storm was created weeks before it struck New Orleans. Television networks programs enabled viewers to follow the storms activities 24 hours per day.
With the great volume of timely information available to the various agencies of the government it seems reasonable to assume that the various levels of authority would be able to assemble the equipment, material and personnel to handle the emergency immediately upon its appearance. There were adequate supplies of equipment, supplies and personnel to handle the various problems as they developed. The big task was to assemble these resources at the places they were needed at the times they were needed.
A Patrol Leader from my Scout Troop would know how to assemble busses, trucks, trains and planes and have them ready to move people out of the way of the hurricane. He would know that the people being moved would need food and drink. He would know they would need comfortable places to sleep and toilet facilities. This fellow would even realize that sick people don’t make good campers and would arrange for hospital care for them at the destination. The skills he had learned in the Troop would guide him in arranging a communication network big enough to alert the people to the location of the pick-up points and to arrange necessary facilities at the destination point.
The Patrol Leader would involve his Scoutmaster in arranging a registration system of personal data sufficient to keep the evacuees in touch with relatives or friends. At the destination the Registry would enable living facilities, government and emergency agencies to know who was involved in the program and how to contact them without delay. Telephones and computer networks would allow any person to contact other persons, no matter where they were located.
All of this, and more, would be the result of organization and training in the Scout Troop and the application of the motto----Be Prepared.
It is not too much to expect the United States Government to perform better than a Boy Scout Troop. The Scouts are volunteers with limited resources obtained through donations and fund raising projects, while the Government has the authority to commandeer any equipment or resources it needs to accomplish its purposes. The government could assemble all the manpower, transportation facilities it needs on the word of the President. Warehouses are packed with crates of prepackaged food and bottled water ready for transport to the assembly area. The Army has housing and equipment on hand for setting up Aid and Hospital services on a vacant lot or wherever needed with doctors and nurses to furnish whatever services may be needed. Everything is available to enable people to live comfortably until they can get their lives back together. All that is needed is the leadership and skill to execute a plan that the governmental agencies must surely have in their files at this time.
The question is “Why didn’t the governmental agencies do their jobs in this emergency?”
Did they doubt the accuracy of the data from the weather being broadcast on radio, television and newspapers?
Did the persons in charge doubt their authority to take action?
Did the President not read the papers or watch the television. Did he assume the Agencies were handling the matter and not verify the action?
Did the President and the heads of the various Agencies assume that all the people that matter would have automobiles or other facilities for leaving the area and that what happened to the others didn’t matter?
Whatever happened [or didn’t happen] has given the American people a sorry demonstration of what might happen if we were to have an attack of the kinds we have been hearing might happen at any time. It leads us to wonder what response we could expect from a “Dirty Bomb” attack. How would the Agencies handle an attack with Biologic or other dreaded weapon?
The way the Katrina was managed, cannot help but raise questions about the competence of the government in Washington from the top to the bottom.
Jerry Clements 9/04/05
Mama read the skies accurately. A bad storm was coming. There was no time to waste. She gave the older boys the job of protecting the garden, a valuable family resource. It was located on a ridge which lay a few feet lower than the road and the boy’s job was to enlarge the ruts in the sandy road so as to lead the rain to follow the road, rather than overflow into the garden. The kids did their job well.
The storm was approaching fast as the clouds turned the day into night as the winds picked up with a deafening roar. The family gathered in the kitchen and huddled under the heavy table until the storm passed by. The next morning the family went up the road a short distance and looked across the valley to view the storm’s damage, a swath of broken or uprooted trees about a hundred yards wide, extending the length of vision from left to right. We were all deeply impressed with the destructive power of this tornado, and happy to have escaped injury or damage.
The Tuscaloosa County tornado is not comparable to Hurricane Katrina. However, remembering it brings to mind a few facts that appear significant. The Clements family didn’t have television, radio or telephone to give an advance warning of the approaching tornado. There was no weather channel showing the storm’s location and the path it was expected to follow.
The modern facilities of the weather forecasting agencies enabled people all over the nation to receive hour to hour facts about Katrina’s power, speed and accurately predicted path. These data were available from the date the storm was created weeks before it struck New Orleans. Television networks programs enabled viewers to follow the storms activities 24 hours per day.
With the great volume of timely information available to the various agencies of the government it seems reasonable to assume that the various levels of authority would be able to assemble the equipment, material and personnel to handle the emergency immediately upon its appearance. There were adequate supplies of equipment, supplies and personnel to handle the various problems as they developed. The big task was to assemble these resources at the places they were needed at the times they were needed.
A Patrol Leader from my Scout Troop would know how to assemble busses, trucks, trains and planes and have them ready to move people out of the way of the hurricane. He would know that the people being moved would need food and drink. He would know they would need comfortable places to sleep and toilet facilities. This fellow would even realize that sick people don’t make good campers and would arrange for hospital care for them at the destination. The skills he had learned in the Troop would guide him in arranging a communication network big enough to alert the people to the location of the pick-up points and to arrange necessary facilities at the destination point.
The Patrol Leader would involve his Scoutmaster in arranging a registration system of personal data sufficient to keep the evacuees in touch with relatives or friends. At the destination the Registry would enable living facilities, government and emergency agencies to know who was involved in the program and how to contact them without delay. Telephones and computer networks would allow any person to contact other persons, no matter where they were located.
All of this, and more, would be the result of organization and training in the Scout Troop and the application of the motto----Be Prepared.
It is not too much to expect the United States Government to perform better than a Boy Scout Troop. The Scouts are volunteers with limited resources obtained through donations and fund raising projects, while the Government has the authority to commandeer any equipment or resources it needs to accomplish its purposes. The government could assemble all the manpower, transportation facilities it needs on the word of the President. Warehouses are packed with crates of prepackaged food and bottled water ready for transport to the assembly area. The Army has housing and equipment on hand for setting up Aid and Hospital services on a vacant lot or wherever needed with doctors and nurses to furnish whatever services may be needed. Everything is available to enable people to live comfortably until they can get their lives back together. All that is needed is the leadership and skill to execute a plan that the governmental agencies must surely have in their files at this time.
The question is “Why didn’t the governmental agencies do their jobs in this emergency?”
Did they doubt the accuracy of the data from the weather being broadcast on radio, television and newspapers?
Did the persons in charge doubt their authority to take action?
Did the President not read the papers or watch the television. Did he assume the Agencies were handling the matter and not verify the action?
Did the President and the heads of the various Agencies assume that all the people that matter would have automobiles or other facilities for leaving the area and that what happened to the others didn’t matter?
Whatever happened [or didn’t happen] has given the American people a sorry demonstration of what might happen if we were to have an attack of the kinds we have been hearing might happen at any time. It leads us to wonder what response we could expect from a “Dirty Bomb” attack. How would the Agencies handle an attack with Biologic or other dreaded weapon?
The way the Katrina was managed, cannot help but raise questions about the competence of the government in Washington from the top to the bottom.
Jerry Clements 9/04/05
posted by Jeremiah | 3:21 PM
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