Please. Everyone from the President on down has had criticism on how this was handled.
Just so we're clear on who is supposed to be taking charge in these situations:
In the event of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other large-scale emergency, the Department of Homeland Security will assume primary responsibility on March 1st for ensuring that emergency response professionals are prepared for any situation.
And what will the DHS do for us?
This will entail providing a coordinated, comprehensive federal response to any large-scale crisis and mounting a swift and effective recovery effort.
Golly! How ever will they do that?
The National Response Plan establishes a comprehensive all-hazards approach to enhance the ability of the United States to manage domestic incidents. The plan incorporates best practices and procedures from incident management disciplines—homeland security, emergency management, law enforcement, firefighting, public works, public health, responder and recovery worker health and safety, emergency medical services, and the private sector—and integrates them into a unified structure. It forms the basis of how the federal government coordinates with state, local, and tribal governments and the private sector during incidents. It establishes protocols to help
So the Department of Homeland Security is tasked with taking charge in the event of a large scale natural disaster and will provide a cooridinated response towards swift and effective recovery using its comprehensive plan that links local, state and federal authorties?
Well, that explains why the DHS & FEMA had no clue what was going on, no communication with the state and local authorities, no central leadership, reacted slowly and generally had their heads up their collective asses for the first 72+ hours of the event. For an event that they specifically trained for and had a three day warning, it was an utter failure and God forbid they react the same if there's a terror attack, earthquake or some other catastrophic event that didn't allow 75% of the populace to be out of harm's way when it occurs. Dismiss everyone criticising the DHS's first test as "media puppets" if it makes you feel better but no one is calling this a success.
Edited, Sat Sep 3 01:20:49 2005 by Jophiel
____________________________
Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.