Looking back to Hurricane Katrina, and the reaction of the goverment(s), several things come to mind.

One of which is -- Where were the rescue groups? Other than the coast guard, did anybody even hear of a SAR, paramedic or other group getting in to help people?

TRO

I don't know the exact truth of it, but I read from quite a few sources and one acquaintance that the people with guns weren't letting anyone walk out of NOLA, and they weren't letting any rescue people in for quite a while. I can't imagine the reasoning for this, if there was any reasoning going on...

Sue

Once the looting started, the SAR efforts were pretty much restricted to Military units, or LE.

Typical. The only way I'd live in a place that risky is to build my own little fortress and make it Cat 5 proof, to heck with the idiot government groups. I never much figured I could rely on them to solve my problems no how.

A post event assessment will make good reading once the political fallout joins the mud. In this situation the Coast Guard was able to respond quickly because A. There were considerable resources allready in place with aviation,ship and small boat units integrated with this vital shipping area. B. the Coast Guard's unique mission mandate has created a multi tasking structure able to respond rapidly. I read the total CG helicopter missions flown and the people evacuated and translated that into the logistical measure of coffeecups. Senator Proxmire , famous for his Golden Fleece awards just passed away. I remember when our issue coffee was reduced in quality as a result <img src="/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> Like a famous confederate cavalry commander said, " just get there the firstest with the mostest."

Over the course of six weeks, our team treated over 8000 patients. Just because the media chose to only publicize the negatives, doesn't mean positive things didn't happen. BTW, we on the ground two days before the hurricane hit.

Malpaso, how soon after the event were you able to get in?

Sue

I was reading the After Action Report for Civil Air Patrol's involvement in MS. Intersting read I will post a ling when I can. A couple thing came out, the ground teams while not doing SAR where acting as contact persons to get an idea of where people where still at and if anything was needed. A lot of people where effected that we never heard about and a lot of volunteers provided help that we will never hear about. I thing the focus on the goverment's response has sold short the amount of volunteer response. One comment that I did see was that for disaster operation teams must be ready to operate for ten day without support. This would include both "forward" teams and the incedent command personal.

I was part of the CAP effort on MS. The area south of I-10 (the area affected by the storm surge) was searched by one of the big USAR teams, from Miami, I think. They did an excellent job. The Coast Guard was outstanding (as usual). Whenever one of our teams came across someone with serious needs, out first inclination was to call our Coastie contacts in the State EOC. They never let us down (thanks guys!) The Red Cross and Salvation Army volunteers did their usual excellent service, but the scope and magnatitude stretched their manpower resources thin. When they were finally allowed in, volunteers from churches joined in and continue to work today.

One of biggest problems (and prehaps the biggest) problem was communications. I have seen recently that FEMA has "solved" their communications problems by purchasing an additional 5,000 sat phones. From my personal expirence, that's a giant waste of taxpayer's money. We (CAP) had access to 5 sat phones and most of the time we couldn't get through to anyone - our cell phones worked better! HF radios and decently trained operators are a much more cost effective (and plain just more effective) solution.

That's all for now, I just haven't taken the time to organize my thoughts on particular areas yet.

Stay Safe,

Jim

I have heard that about Sat phones. I wonder at what level of use the Sat phone system reaches saturation and stops working. I'm thinking that a voice over IP system useing a satalite internet hookup would be a better way to go for a mission base.

From a presentation we had from a Florida SAR team (can't remember the number), the local emergency management officials in their area had sortof "given up", or were shell shocked, and weren't making decisions. They were asking the teams "What do you think we should do?".

Communication is the biggest. It's the nucleus in the ESF plan around which all other ESF's must function. What would be really cool to see in the future is cell phones that can operate in a peer-to-peer/repeater mode. Unfortunately, there are too many immature and stupid people using cell phones, as evident by how they use them in general, that it would never work.

I think the one point that everyone is missing is that this is not one person, one government, or the FEMA's fault. There are multiple failures at many different levels that compounded the issues. Emergency Management officials have been preaching for years about 72 hour kits. If the citizens had taken their "responsibility" in government seriously, we wouldn't have nearly had as many people to rescue. If New Orleans had only... If Louisian had only... If Mississippi had only... It can go on and on.

Preaching to the choir, but your Federal Government is only here redistribute funds collected to programs that representatives have deemed important. Until people start participating in their government (you know, "Government for the people, and by the people"), these problems won't go away. We need to increase personal responsibility, decrease litigation and cut fat out of the government. If we don't, necessary programs like Emergency Management are going to suffer.

Yes, this was later proven. Law enforcement closed one of the bridges to evacuees -- they didn't want them in their city.

Amen to that, I think you stated that very well. Now, good luck getting the folks that actually need to hear it to pay any attention.

Troy

Emergency Management Assistance Compact ....zip, 24MB PDF)

Interesting read. I think having an idea what the government wants to do, and do better, may give you a better idea of what you should do.