Hurricane poses tough questions about future disasters

ghostrider · Sep 7, 2005

Hurricane poses tough questions about future disasters

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Hurricane Katrina is confronting US leaders with tough questions of law and tradition over who should be in charge the next time the United States faces a major catastrophe on its soil.

Although the immediate focus has been on the human misery in the hurricane's aftermath, US officials are clearly thinking about how much worse it could be if terrorists had struck with nuclear or biological weapons.

"It's very important for us to understand the relationship between the federal government, the state government and the local government when it comes to a major catastrophe," President George W. Bush said Tuesday.

"And the reason it's important is that we still live in an unsettled world. We want to make sure that we can respond properly if there's a WMD (weapons of mass destruction) attack or another major storm," he told reporters.

Bush ordered an investigation into the response to the disaster -- what went wrong and what went right. US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the military already has teams in place to study "lessons learned."

US policymakers have been struggling for years with how to orchestrate a coherent government-wide response to a surprise WMD attack or a massive natural disaster across a tangle of competing local, state and federal jurisdictions

Despite drills and war games, the fumbling response to Hurricane Katrina brought home how far the government is from solving the issue.

A key stumbling block appears to have been lines of authority that gave state and local officials primary responsibility for the disaster relief response, and the federal government only a supporting role.

Ordinarily, a governor would call up the state national guard in response to a natural disaster, and have them join forces with local police and firefighters.

Governors also have the option of borrowing national guard troops from other states, or of asking the federal government to provide additional military assistance.

The federal government traditionally has deferred to the states in part because of a long-standing wariness of involving active duty military in domestic policing duties.

An 1878 law known as Posse Comitatus bars federal troops from engaging in law enforcement activities, confining them to a more limited role of providing logistics and medical assistance.

"In this disaster, and a disaster of this magnitude, the would-be first responders at the state and local level were themselves victims in very large numbers," Rumsfeld said Tuesday.

Because of that, he said, "we had a situation that was distinctly different than in past events of this type."

"Just as the Department of Defense does not have lead responsibility with respect to natural disasters, so, too, we do not have lead responsibility with respect to attacks within the United States from within the United States," he said.

General Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, said analysts have been looking at whether the military needs additional authorities to respond to a domestic crisis of similar magnitude.

The issue has been under discussion as part of a review of defense policy and strategy that is conducted every four years, he said.
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The responsibility lies with the state. For evacuation, response, coordinating help, requesting help. New Orleans has been such a disaster because of the mayor and governor.

Bear · Sep 7, 2005

Lots and lots of lessons to be learned.....
Are we listening????....
Got another storm churning off Florida with some models taking it across Florida into the gulf.... watch that one....

http://today.reuters.com/investing/...907:MTFH60976_2005-09-07_16-10-38_N07149625:1

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/radar/loop/DS.p20-r/si.kmlb.shtml

Valkman · Sep 7, 2005

This stuff is harder than people think - idiots like Harry Reid just want to complain and slam Bush. Here in Vegas they knew they had hundreds of NO people coming, and it's still mass confusion and no one knows what they're doing. A family showed up from NO in their own SUV - these people work and are self sufficient, they just need some help right now. But no, since they didn't show up poor and on a bus they were turned away! You give these people a job (lots of those here) and a place to stay and they'll take care of the rest.

monkeyman · Sep 7, 2005

Oh goodie, give the Fed more power and the military domestic authorities, I hope whoever is comeing up with that idea goes and studies the next huricane standing in the open and dies before they can do to much harm.

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Hurricane poses tough questions about future disasters

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Hurricane poses tough questions about future disasters

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