The President finally accepted some blame for the failed Hurricane Katrina response today (for those of you who still care). To varying degrees, state an local officials have been showing contrition as well, knowing that their jobs may be in jeopardy. But, only one person responsible has cried real tears (as far as I know). The buck stops at Madhu Beriwal’s desk. Time Magazine reports:
Madhu Beriwal equates disaster planning with marathon running. “You train and time yourself and figure out what you need to do to achieve it,” she says. As the president of Innovative Emergency Management, Inc., in Baton Rouge, La., Beriwal knows about training for marathon-size catastrophes like Hurricane Katrina. Her company played a role in the Hurricane Pam simulation, which involved almost 300 officials getting ready for a major-category storm hitting New Orleans. But after witnessing the devastation left by Katrina and the blundered response from relief officials, Beriwal wonders if the training needs to be rethought. “The system failed,” she told TIME when asked who in the end was to blame. “We all share the blame.” After saying this, she begins to cry.Beriwal is a native of Calcutta, India, who came to the U.S. 25 years ago. After earning a master’s degree in urban planning, she gained a reputation in Louisiana as an expert in disaster preparation. Like many others in similar roles, Beriwal feels a measure of guilt when watching the images of flood victims. She’s also aware that some of the tragedy was because of the “disaster sub-culture” of any population–which is a certain level of resistance to pre-storm evacuation. Some people simply won’t evacuate.
It’s worth noting that I.E.M.’s Pam preparedness plan, which FEMA contracted for almost $1 million, helped 80 percent of the population of the New Orleans area evacuate before Katrina made landfall on August 29th–one of the highest rates ever for a hurricane.
I couldn’t help but click on the “products and services” link at IEM’s website. We have been meaning to implement a disaster plan here at our North Dakota HQ for some time now. We just don’t trust local officials here. One product I found was a master “Guidebook.” What does this “Guidebook” do?
-The Guidebook combines state-of-the-art analysis with an efficient decision-making process, allowing emergency managers to proceed with confidence as they take the steps necessary to protect their communities.
-The Guidebook is comprehensive–it provides recommendations for millions of possible events.
-The Guidebook makes the technical details involved in the decision-making process invisible to decision-makers, greatly reducing the time required to make the right protective action decision.
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p>I think we could all use a “Guidebook” in our lives.
for those of you who still care?
Nice.
Wait GW admitted a mistake!? Wow something must be really different. Oh yeah….lowest approval ratings since he became president.
Move over Junior Woodchuck Guidebook, the Hitchhiker’s Guide and Penny’s Computerbook. The IEM(tm) Guidebook is here!
Wait, isn’t that a perfectly acceptable disclaimer? Many people don’t care about assessing blame right now but want to get on with the business of rescue and reconstruction. “The time for blame will come later” is what I keep hearing.
Ms. Beriwal bio and photo.
Pork theory from the lefty New Republic:
Here’s something I’ve been turning over in my head for the last couple of days, and I’m curious what all-a-y’all think of it:
So the FEMA chief resigns. Good, right? For a crappy job done, you deserve to lose your job. BUT. I get stuck thinking it’s a pretty selfish move and doesn’t fix anything. I mean, resigning only protects his dignity, it doesn’t do anything with forward momentum to solve the problems at hand, offer relief, or initiate any rebuilding… it’s really just Michael Brown posturing to keep a good face… if he really gave a shit he’d keep working, double-time, 200% to right the wrongs by his poor leadership. In my opinion, that would be honorable.
I don’t know. I’m moderately sleep deprived and out of it…just wanted to throw that out and see what you guys have to say…
to me the most interesting line of the story is that 80% got out prior to landfall and that that was one of the highest evacuation rates so far. sort of nullifies bush and co’s “blame game” of passing the buck to the local authorities.
bitches.
DesiDancer, good point, but I think it’s really the Bush camp posturing to protect its collective face. Brown became a lightning rod for everything that was messed up about the federal response to Katrina. Every failure requires a scapegoat. So he’s pushed out of FEMA, and Bush sees his poll numbers rise — possibly even more after Thursday’s big speech.
But if Brown showed up now to lend a helping hand, well that would be too.. humane?
timepass, I agree with you on the “Why it happened”. I’m just disappointed (understatement). Being from the Clean Up Your Own Mess school of thought, I think it would have been impressive if Brown said “ok fine, I’m being asked to step down and so I will, but the devastation and tragedy is just too much for me to swallow, so if you’ll have me I offer these 2 hands to help in the relief efforts…” Just because he screwed up doesn’t mean he should immediately wash his hands of it, and I feel that’s what’s being done. I’d have a lot more respect for someone who said they didn’t care about the title or rank, but just wanted to be helpful…
http://www.factcheck.org/article348.html
Katrina: What Happened When It will take months to get the full story, but meanwhile here are some of the key facts about what happened and when officials acted.