IMO, the issue at the federal level isn't logistics, but communications. Logistics is a DISTRACTION. A big central piece of the lessons learned part from 9/11 was command and control. The situation on the ground was obviously a cluster **** through most of the first week. You hear that not just from the press but from first responders involved in the situation, from outside relief agencies trying to get approvals, from any number of frustrated individuals looking for a central number to call to get stuff moved through the bureaucratic process.
We've spent a lot of money on this homeland security stuff, with one major goal being to get agencies and government entities to work together nicely. Apparently that didn't happen, and apparently you can't just point a finger at N.O. and say, we were 100 percent and they dropped the ball. Granted, N.O. showed almost no organization or initiative, but then it was hardly a well-oiled machine at the federal level.
Among the doctors stymied from helping out are 100 surgeons and paramedics in a state-of-the-art mobile hospital, developed with millions of tax dollars for just such emergencies, marooned in rural Mississippi.
"The bell was rung, the e-mails were sent off. ...We all got off work and deployed," said one of the frustrated surgeons, Dr. Preston "Chip" Rich of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
"We have tried so hard to do the right thing. It took us 30 hours to get here," he said. That government officials can't straighten out the mess and get them assigned to a relief effort now that they're just a few miles away "is just mind-boggling," he said. http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/09/04/katrina.sick.redtape.ap/
Plus, there was no leadership. No one to stand up and cut through the red tape (that, again, I though wasn't supposed to be there after 9/11) until apparently Gen. Honore got on the scene. Even Cheney has admitted the need to cut through bureaucratic red tape (I think that was his reason for the recent visit).
Republican Leader Tom DeLay said Saturday the nation's terrorism preparedness needs review in light of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
DeLay was in Baton Rouge visiting the Louisiana state emergency center where government agencies have set up their command and control.
He said in a phone interview that he would meet with Secretary Michael Chertoff to discuss how the country deals with disaster and that the issue will be on Congress' agenda when it reconvenes Tuesday.
"The biggest problem we are having right now is command and control, who is in charge, who is making decisions, who is in position for leadership," said DeLay, of Sugar Land. http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/weather/090405_APkatrina_delay.html
But of course, that is entirely the fault of N.O. and La., and we should ignore the billions spent on "homeland security" in the past 4 years, and ignore that command and control and communications was not only a stated goal behind these expenditures, but an entirely achievable goal. I'm sure Brownie will be the official scapegoat for that, and we'll be discouraged from questioning just exactly what our billions spent for homeland defense were actually spent on. My bet, we got 30-cents on the taxpayer dollar. Personally, I don’t like to see my taxpayer dollars squandered, but YMMV.
Charon
