AP Disaster Response Improvements Lacking

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060429/ap_on_re_us/katrina_what_now;_ylt=AvjpmgUU9Xl.X.soI61d_BRvzwcF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

Disaster Response Improvements Lacking

By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer Sat Apr 29, 1:10 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Most of the changes in natural disaster preparedness proposed by the White House and Congress since Hurricane Katrina are years away at best, leaving the Gulf Coast and other areas vulnerable to new devastation.

Only a few of the 211 suggested improvements from three federal reports will be ready when the hurricane season starts June 1, and limited dollars and political squabbling already are complicating the progress.

"Nature doesn't care about reports," said Kathleen Tierney, director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado. "Nor does it care about the fact there are people still suffering, and we're not ready.

"The big question in everybody's mind is whether entities that proved themselves incompetent to handle Hurricane Katrina can become competent by the summer of 2006," Tierney said Friday. "So far, we've seen no evidence of that."

[Robbien]

1. BushCo do not recognize that “public purposes” exist

Disasters are only opportunities for more publically funded contracts to be doled out to "friends". Fixing the problem is not on the agenda.