I had this long post about VTs government being stupid, lack of planning, how NC did plan for a MAJOR storm, and about Helicopters and how much stuff they can haul - but poop on it, y'all want to defend Ben and Jerry, feel free.

Vermont is and has been a PHRASECENSOREDPOSTERSHOULDKNOWBETTER. paradise for a while. I grew up in RI and lived in NH for a bit. VT has about 10 native Vermonters and a load of transplants from other places who went there to live in communes and talk to cows.

The state govenment dropped the ball on this storm. They were unprepared. The weather forecasts were out there at least a day before.

The principle of 6Ps applies.

JB certainly could have been less inflammatory, but I think his point remains.

Critiquing the actions after an event, whether government or individual, has always been fair game on ETS.

Whether or not things could/should have been differently and lessons for next time are always informative.

In the SAR team that I volunteer with, we always do a debrief after every event, whether training or real deal. The objective is to dicuss what worked well, what didn't work, and how to make it better next time. I doubt anyone would have problem with that.

JB's comments however, seemed to me to be mostly a politcal rant, rather than a constructive critique of events.

Being a relatively new member of ETS, I won't address whether that is or isn't "fair game".

Bingo! Exactly right.

The critique process you described was also used by the SAR group with which I associated some years ago. it worked extremely well over the years and boosted the effectiveness of the group enormously.

I'm not as ready to dogpile on JB as maybe some are. I believe JB would probably tell you himself that he is less than skilled in the art of politically correct style than some. That does not make his point any less valid. Regardless of political alignment, some governments are simply less adept at dealing with disasters and being properly prepared than others. If I had to choose where I had to be when a disaster occurred, I would pick Texas over Vermont. I would pick Florida over Louisiana. I'm not saying that's the fault of one political persuasion or the other, but the fact remains. The image of hundreds of of schools buses sitting empty and flooded in New Orleans will be something most of us will never forget.

The key is to figure out what you can expect or not expect from your government officials and prepare yourself accordingly. Knowing that help may be two weeks rather than two days away may be the difference between life and death. As always, YMMV.

I'm seriously not trying to dogpile. I just don't understand what they could have done differently. Maybe I'm too simple minded. Major roads and bridges are washed out and they have to rebuild to rebuild. NYC was back-up and running in a day but wasn't that because they were spared the brunt of the storm?

There's honest critiquing and there's political ranting. JBMat, when you start using censored words guess which form your responses are taking.

This thread is locked due to bad behavior.

-Sheriff Blast