Homeland Security - Disaster Inc. (remember this-jr has not made us safe)

[rodeodance]

http://nationaljournal.com/cgi-bin/ifetch4?ENG+NJMAG+7-njmagtoc+1160919-DBSCORE+256+1+1191+F+7+20+1+PD%2f12%2f17%2f2005%2d%3e12%2f17%2f2005
12-17-2005
Homeland Security - Disaster Inc.

Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (Email this author)
© National Journal Group, Inc.

On Thursday, August 25, as Hurricane Katrina roared toward the coast, the global operations center went to full alert. A small crew had tracked Katrina 24 hours a day since it formed as a nameless tropical depression. Now dozens of personnel, drawn from different specialties, packed the operations center and readied the mobile command posts for deployment. Managers kept one eye on the storm's advance and another on the progress of the supply trucks laden with food, water, generators, and even diapers that were heading toward staging areas. That afternoon, Katrina plowed through Florida and then made its fateful turn toward New Orleans. The operations center sent urgent orders to local managers all along the Gulf Coast: Board up your stores.

All of these preparations -- the command post, the forecasting, the pre-positioning of supplies -- were being made by an organization entirely independent of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. military, and the state of Louisiana. They were being made by Wal-Mart.

America's giant corporations have their own emergency-management systems, separate from and parallel to the government's. They cannot afford not to: These businesses have billions in assets -- facilities, goods, and personnel -- to protect. And if those private assets survive intact, they can help fill a tremendous public need during disaster-recovery efforts, if the private and public sectors can bridge their differences and work together.

"Those companies that were well prepared weathered the storm far, far better, and, by the way, were able to help their neighbors," said Alfonso Martinez-Fonts, head of the small private-sector outreach office at the Homeland Security Department. The private resources available are staggering: The Gulf Coast utility company Entergy alone mobilized more than 15,000 workers from across the country to restore power after Katrina...............