1468 On planning for a hurricane disaster

Over at Captain's Quarters I noticed this link to the Emergency Preparedness Plan for the City of New Orleans.

There are phrases in this Plan familiar to all of us who have ever been a member of a task force charged with coming up with a plan. About 20 years ago I worked for the State of Ohio as a planner and had to put together a plan that showed the various "agencies" under that department were all heading the same direction. Never having done anything larger than a small task force report for a small library problem I was baffled about where to begin. Then I discovered by reading through similar reports that all I needed to do was find out what each agency was already doing and then add the words: provide, maintain, participate, develop, ensure, conduct, test, disseminate, facilitate, etc., along with lots of "train" and "education" words, and then add a time line that fit within the period of time that political party would be in charge. It's almost a miracle how you can meet your plan deadline quickly. So I was not surprised to see phrases to nowhere in the plan.

"Coordinates, facilitates and encourages"

"develop evaluation procedures"

"sponsor and coordinate"

"shall work in conjunction with"

training in "appropriate plans and standard operating procedures"

"required to develop and implement"

This report even has trifectas: "Develop adequate educational materials for dissemination" and "consult with other city departments and agencies in development of appropriate bulletins affecting their activities." Ah, the faith this country has in education, especially if it stays on a paper plan.

However, writing a plan that describes the disaster is not the same as being prepared for the disaster, and that appears to be where Nagin's administration failed:

"Certain hazards, such as a hurricane, provide some lead time for coordinating an evacuation. However, this can not be considered a certainty. Plus, the sheer size of an evacuation in response to an approaching hurricane creates the need for the use of community-wide warning resources, which cannot be limited to our City's geographical boundaries. Evacuation of major portions of our population, either in response to localized or citywide disasters, can only be accomplished if the citizens and visitors are kept informed of approaching threats on a timely schedule, and if they are notified of the need to evacuate in a timely and organized manner. If an evacuation order is issued without the mechanisms needed to disseminate the information to the affected persons, then we face the possibility of having large numbers of people either stranded and left to the mercy of a storm, or left in an area impacted by toxic materials."