What we can LEARN from the New Orleans disaster

[DELUSIONAL]

steve2470 posted the link below with details about rescue operations etc. in New Orleans.

What struck me was the lack of communication -- "lack of even rudimentary communication capabilities".

OK -- so we can LEARN from this disaster and start thinking locally. What happens if a disaster happens in YOUR area. Can everyone that needs to communicate? If not started ranting and nagging about the problem.


Police officers, firefighters and private citizens, hampered by a lack of even rudimentary communication capabilities, continued a desperate and impromptu boat-borne rescue operation across Lakeview well after dark. Coast Guard helicopters with searchlights criss-crossed the skies.

more communications problems (which reminds me of the World Trade center problems with communication between rescue etc. -- this is a major problem and the lesson should have been learned from the World Trade center OR even the Oakland Fires - COMMUNICATION IS ESSENTIAL.0

Firefighters who saved them tried to request an RTA bus to come for the refugees, but realized was no working communications to do so. Ed Gruber, who lives in the 6300 block of Canal Boulevard, said he became desperate when the rising water chased him, his wife, Helen, and their neighbor Mildred K. Harrison to the second floor of their home.

Meanwhile Nero George eats cake.

Thanks for posting this article -- I'm forwarding this to friend who have family in the NO area.

The lack of communication is really something that bugs me -- because simple disaster drill would have shown this to be a problem and in this age of high tech this sort of poor communication is a major glaring problem.

I believe we need to take this to the local level in each of our communities -- what sort of emergency plans and COMMUNICATION are in place if a major disaster hits?

I stormed and raged about the lack of communication several years ago (ok -- ages ago when Mt St. Helens blew). My husband was in a position to shut his wife up -- and he wrote disaster plans-- with emergency plans for inter-agency etc. communications. Others followed his example and our county has disaster plans and has had drills for major disaster events.

At the time there were NO plans in place -- and the major event was the major ash fall which hit Eastern Washington. If the wind had been in a different direction that ash fall could have hit Western Washington.

It seems like one lesson we need to take from this for each place we live in is to check to see IF a communication plan is in place -- between every group (agency, private and public) that need to be in contact with each other. If not start nagging local officials -- county commissioners, mayors -- whatever the structure of your local government -- on up to the State level -- Representatives and Senators.

http://www.nola.com/hurricane/t-p/katrina.ssf?/hurricane/katrina/stories/083005catastrophic.html

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. a couple of things

Building a city below the ocean level is not the best of ideas. Same goes for those who live next to the mississippi knowing that it will flood.

But, luckily, we have weather satellites, without which the dead and injured would have been numbered in the hundreds of thousands, not the hundreds.

oh damn. CNN has pix of the levee break. water is 20 ft deep in places.

[rodeodance]

2. we have no National Disaster Plan--Homeland Security is useless--we

have local and area people doing what they can--each piecemeal and the Red Cross.

Fema is POST disaster--little planning preparation beforehand.
Now the main ports (1/5th of our economy) is chaos. No planning.

And the drum beats on.

[rodeodance]

3. I do not mean to be a critic--but it has been almost 4 years since 9/11

and to me it is obvious that for the most part we have spun our wheels.

[wli]

5. the efforts on this front are politicized and porkbarrellized

i.e. they are driven by punishing Democratic voting districts, rewarding Republican voting districts, and largely irrelevant to reality. This is why none of them are working, and we see absolutely zero preparedness in this particular Democratic area.

[bribri16]

4. It's not so simple as to just say "what went wrong and no communication."

There is almost no way to maintain communications in a disaster like this. The panic of sudden rising water is so horrifying it's unbelievable. Even the most sophisticated communication will fail at times like this. BUT you are correct that families ought to prepare for disasters with some kind of disaster plan and churches would spend their time better giving training to their families in disaster planning rather than anti-abortion politics. The millions taken in by these "looting" churches should be set aside for times like this to be able to help poor people and all people who lose everything to these natural disasters. I have never heard of a singal church announcing massive efforts in times like this. But I have heard of huge write-in campaigns and prayer vigils for anti-abortion activities and fund-raising for Rethug elections.

[Nikki Stone 1]

10. Sudden rising water must be horrific

I have never been in that situation and I can't even imagine it.

[DELUSIONAL]

11. I'm wondering if the Fire Departments etc. in NYC

can communicate with each other TODAY.

It seems like the newly released audio of the 911 calls on September 11, 2001 showed that there were major communication problems.

Sort of like the various branches of the military couldn't communicate with each other -- no shared communication frequency of similar equipment during Gulf War of daddy bush.

There are ways to anticipate the very worst and then have a simulation to find out if people can communicate vital information.

In the end we have to individually prepare -- just in case. Homeland Security is a joke --

Didn't someone post information about how Homeland Security awarded a big contract for the New Orleans area to come up with a "plan" in case of a major disaster? I wonder what stage this privatized emergency planning is in?

Yes -- and having a huge Metro area in a flood plane is poor planning.

Anyone who has seen the geography of New Orleans and realized that it is (was) protected by a levee system -- could simply imagine what would happen if major disaster struck (like a hurricane) and the levee broke and water started finding its own level. . .

I've been to New Orleans and it is a treasure -- it saddens me to know this is happening to the people.

Oh gee I forgot -- Global Warming doesn't exist -- so after this hurricane season the hurricane belt can expect the number and frequency of major hurricane threats to diminish. <sarcasm off>

[izzie]

6. It was the same on 911. Maybe it is the greed of who is selling

that system to the places? If one system will not work with other in use what good are they? I do not understand why I may call just about any where in the world but police can not talk to firemen in the same building. This can not be the science part of the system as I see it. It looks to me like one company trying to out sell another, so some type of bands are put on their systems. A perfect point was when I lived in SA. You just could not use a phone and be sure to get to who you were calling as they were in the middle of pushing one countries company out and bring in other countries.

[SHRED]

7. We can also learn

That the pRezident will still be reading "My Pet Goat" during the floods.

[PowerToThePeople]

8. Shoot! Misposted. Too Early in the morning..

I learned * is the anti-christ.

Oh wait, already knew that one. Well, I blame the whole thing on the pukes lack of signing Kyoto treaty and the new "clean air act"

edit- spelling, not enough coffee yet this AM.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4505593#4505624

[Sgent]

9. SSB & VHF

radios will work in a crisis like this.

One major problem is that while the USCG has them, no one else (NOPD, Natl Gaurd) does.

They are not perfect, but they work for communications.

[DELUSIONAL]

13. Exactly the system I was thinking of

the units are inexpensive -- and they would enable everyone to talk.

There are radio protocols already in place which could work in major disaster scenarios. Add to this mix the ham radio operators.

There is the marine band -- boaters use this -- and I've heard co-ordination between Sheriffs Department, local police, Coast Guard and citizen boaters plus commercial boat rescue many times -- rescuing a stranded boat -- getting people out of the water -- all sorts of emergencies.

[hobbit709]

12. It's about the same everywhere

Planning by the authorities never involves a real-world scenario. Here in Austin, when they built the new cop-shop right next to Waller Creek on 7th Street, they put the communications equipment room in the basement to protect it in case of bombing(I think). Then they forgot to install a water-tight door. DUH! They never thought about the creek rising in heavy rain.

[rbjensen]

14. Get your HAM radio license

and get active in their groups. Great folks. non-partisan all the way..if they have strong political views they keep them quiet. Communicatio is everything to them. Around here they run the communication show during emergencies and they do an awesome job. There are ALWAYS hams at the evac shelters in town, and they run the generators. These guys rock, and they are CITIZENS and not government.

The license is easy to get. You have to take a test, but you can get it on line and basically memorize the items even if you aren't an electronics geek.

[DELUSIONAL]

15. These guys practice what to do in an emergency

and often they are the only link to the outside world in an emergency.

I think we need to realize that in an emergency it is up to the citizen -- as if some sort of disaster roll playing has happened at the grass roots level -- enough to get people to think about what they would do -- then we can LEARN from the Katrina terrorist weather attack on the Gulf states. <sarcastic humor off>