And Yet More on Katrina- Local Gov and Leadership

The more I think about this the more I wonder about the local government and their response They should have anticipated the need for supplies and resources at both the Superdome and the Convention Center.

I haven't seen anything that gives me any reason/insight that they could not have stockpiled food/water at those facilities and or included Port-a-potties and medical supplies facilities.

The bottom line is that the only way we get through these natural disasters is through the cooperation of multiple levels of government. The Feds could have done better. From all appearances FEMA's performance could have been worse, but only if they tried.

Leadership in this crisis has been severely lacking. It is easy for me to play armchair quarterback, but to me that is where much of the anger stems from. There was a certain amount of chaos but it seemed to take place without any restriction or guidance.

We needed to see someone step up and take charge. Americans love a John Wayne type hero, someone who would have held a press conference to say that he and 25 men were going to restore order and that people either join in or get out of the way.

But that didn't happen. And now we wait and see what the real story about all this turns out to be.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There's a lot of blame to go around. I think what shocked most people was that everyone assumed, after 9-11, that the country was read and alert for any possible terrorist attack anywhere in the country, but this natural disaster just shows the opposite.

Jack Steiner said...

Neil,

That makes sense to me.

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