[W126 Coupe] [Fwd: Fwd: This about summs it up.]

[Bill P.]

Dick;
Really tell us how you feel!
Bill
P.S. Did you see the people we had delivered to us from there?  WOW!!!

-----Original Message-----
From: mbcoupes-bounces at mbcoupes.com [mailto:mbcoupes-bounces at mbcoupes.com]On
Behalf Of Dick Spellman
Sent: Monday, September 12, 2005 20:51
To: Mercedes Coupes Mailing Lists
Subject: Re: [W126 Coupe] [Fwd: Fwd: This about summs it up.]

Umm.  The picture while humorous if you take no political posture, does not
belie the awful truth of the failed response in Louisiana.  I think that
with time the truth will be told without the media hype and the terrible
pressure the photos of the first few days told of the suffering of so many.

Ask your selves the following questions.

In your state should a disaster occur who are the primary responders?
Does your state have a *EMA headquarters?
Who do you expect to see FIRST after a disaster strikes?
Your local PD?
Your local FD?
Your state's Guard?
Or the Federal Government?
When a disaster strikes and help from the outside is summoned, who is
responsible for having the answers to the following:
Where do you need help and what type of help do you need?
Where are the most populated areas in this disaster area where you have
coalesced evacuees?
Do you have lines of communications to each of these locations?
What resources and timelines for consumption have you made available to
these locations?
What percentage of the population moved of their own accord?
And of the remaining population what local transportation have you staged to
recover them?


Now, having answered all of these questions as they relate to you in your
state, who in your state has the ultimate authority and responsibility to
make sure your state is prepared and readied in the event of a forecasted
disaster?

Your answers should have been the state's governor, the state's emergency
management teams and coordinators, the state had readied and stockpiled
potable water and food stores to areas where they had evacuated populations,
the state should have been prepared to move in with local security and guard
forces, the state should have been prepared with communications and
transport vehicles staged and ready to roll when the conditions permitted.

I have to say that the STATE we are all watching and listening to was ill
prepared, had never run the drill, was incompetent, did not know where their
resources were, had no lines of communications established and readied, had
no reserve forces (State Guard) readied in light of the forecasted storm,
and simply sat back and waited, waited too long and when they did act it was
without a crafted and tested action plan.

Pointing fingers is fine and playing Monday night QB is fine but, the
reality is that we all expect our local government to have prepared for
disasters that are based on our location on this planet and our proximity to
a variety of 'islands of risk' that are man-made.  In Florida which was
racked by back to back hurricanes last year, the state government and local
county governments were prepared, had a plan, and executed on the plan.
They plan and prepare year round for a variety of disaster drills.
Florida's state managed emergency teams and guard were lined up miles
outside the disaster area, waiting to roll in as soon as the storm passed
each and every time.  The state was engaged and in play hours after the
storm hit, not days.  They were not standing around awaiting the federal
government to muster from thousands of miles away.  And when they did ask
for help they provided the salient details of what they needed and where
they needed it most.  They had local authority and responsibility to provide
shelter, food , water and security and in Florida they did just this time
and time again.  Louisiana is the single point of failure from which all
poorly coordinated efforts flowed.  I'd fire every last one of the
management and political flunkies and start over before the next storm
arrives.  Could be next week just like last year in Florida times 3.

The media will eventually get around to asking the hard questions that will
tell the true state of preparedness in the state of Louisiana.  In order for
an outside response to be effective, good information, solid communications,
an assessment of needs and resources has to be ready and available.  I know
this could not have been the case in New Orleans or the state of Louisiana.
Local government had no knowledge of the several thousand people in the
local hospitals running on generators with a few days supplies stock piled
by those private institutions.  The hospitals were ready but, their local
government was not.  Did not even know they were there until the media
uncovered them.

Rant over.

Continue with regularly scheduled programming.

Dick


----- Original Message -----