Sunday, September 04, 2005
A Girl Named Katrina
My first true puppy love in school was with a Girl named Katrina. Serious folks. I can still see her in my mind’s eye as the willowy, blond haired, blue eyed, lovely that stole my heart. Sadly, an upper classman stole her from my imagination and took her away for his very own.
OK. So much for a walk down memory lane.
For those that want to know what brought this on, read the comments to ID Required. I was minding my own business, ignoring the world around me and look what happens. Well Anon, you get what you pay for, when I can figure out where to send the bill.
The question is pointed: What do you think of the way Bushy handled the Katrina thingy…..
From what I have seen, he has handled it one hell of a lot better the Mayor of New Orleans or even the Governor of Louisiana. I shall for the sake of argument, encapsulate the past Mayors and Governors all the way back to Hurricane Camille.
Let me take a side trip for a minute or twelve. For those peoples that think everything happens just as a Hollywood screenwriter writes it, get freaking real folks!
The U.S. Navy once had a wonderful little school at Port Hueneme, California. Which just so happens to be the home of the Navy’s SeaBee’s. The school taught a great course, of which I am a graduate of, called, Disaster Recovery. The school was set up to teach those basic concepts of recovering from a major disaster, either manmade or natural. It taught what was going to be needed to recover an area back to a viable community after mankind or Mother Nature threw a temper tantrum and really messed up a major city.
I know, that statement above is somewhat simplistic, but I do try to keep things that way. Mostly for my own sake. Keeps me from looking up those big words in the Thesaurus.
One feature of Recovery is so simple, most forget that it exists. It was designed to maintain sovereignty of the local governments. It is simply, request what you need.
Did you get that? Request what you need. Shall I describe how it works? Come on folks…. I need some encouragement here!! Ok… better.
Just remember that what follows was developed during the Cold War and devised, revised and otherwise twisted into a useable form by the Civil Defense. Most of this was later transferred to Emergency Management types for the cities, communities which maintained such activities.
So, here we begin.
During an Event, information comes into the Emergency Management Office (EMO) concerning what is needed at a specific location and how soon they need it. (Side Note: I’m using EMO simply cause it works for me. Each city/community has their own name/term, and hopefully you get the drift.)
So, the Liaison desk gets the request from the field. They pass it on to the appropriate coordinator for action. Such as, two (2) dump trucks full of sand/dirt for sandbags needed at 5th and Willow. That request goes to the appropriate desk and not to the Fire Chief. The Liaison collects said requests and notates assets on hand then hands these on to the Mayor who determines who gets what of his limited resources.
Hopefully the Mayor is being properly advised by whatever expert he has in his EMO. Notice I said Hopefully.
OK, so the Mayor finds out he does not have the assets he needs to fulfill requirements. He then has the ability to call on the EMO directly senior to his. Now where I pretend to live, that would be the County EMO. I would like to think that Louisiana has Parrish EMO’s to assist in emergencies.
But as it often the cause in major metropolitan areas, the city and county EMO is consolidated for ease and speed of operation.
If that is the case, next call is too the Governor. And to make this a bit shorter, next would be the President.
Now, here is the real trick. Mayor to Governor……We Need Help! Governor to President…We Need Help! President to Governor… What do you need? Simple sounding situation is it not? And in a real sense it is that simple. But from what I am seeing, everyone is yelling for help and not saying what they actually need. Kind of like going to the store, grabbing a clerk and telling them you need help finding something which you have no idea what it is you came for in the first place.
The President can start many wheels moving simply through his saying so. But, in order to insure that a disaster area receives what it needs, instead of clogged up with basically useless people and equipment, someone needs to tell him exactly what they need him to send them.
Did you get that? Do I need to repeat that? Didn’t think so.
If you need bulldozers to clear debris, you certainly do not ask for a Light Infantry Battalion. You ask for Engineers. And be sure you mention Heavy Construction Engineers, or at least mention the bulldozers.
At this point, the President turns to his advisers and says, call the Chief Engineer of the Army and have him find out how many bulldozers he has available and what it’s going to take to get them into West Slobovia to asset in clean-up. At which point, hopefully someone will actually contact the West Slobovia EMO to find out how many bulldozers they actually need and from which direction it would be best for them to enter the disaster area.
Ok… am I boring anyone here? Toughski Shitski as they use to say in Siberia. This is how things works.
Everything takes time. As difficult as the folks on the ground, in the middle of the target, find the situation, nothing is going to happen according to the sweep of the second hand. And it sure will not happen in Scene 3, Act 2 according to the script in the award winning disaster movie that was on TV last week.
Now for me to double back upon what I bypassed above concerning the noise I was hearing on CNN and other places, just let me say, all I heard was whining by elected officials. Let me hedge this with the knowledge that it is Highly Possible, that no one watching the news of TV received what was actually happening, but what our wonderfully even tempered networks wanted us to see or hear.
So, where does this leave me and this Blog? Almost where I started from. Back at the top or near the top of this article.
Ever since Camille, scientists have examined and studied the possibility of that what has happened to New Orleans was going to happen. Scientists in both the private and government business have known for years that New Orleans was going to flood if a certain set of circumstances occurred. All that was needed was a Category 4 Hurricane which partly strikes Lake Pontchartrain in such a manner that’s the hurricane’s counter-clockwise winds would push the lake waters into and over the levee’s separating New Orleans from the lake.
Hey, this information has been public for years. The Discovery Channel has ran a documentary several times over the past few years concerning this very subject. So, if I am aware of such a problem, I have to consider that the Government of Louisiana and the City Father’s of New Orleans have also known of the possibilities.
And I shall make a statement here, as blind in concept as some of the crap I’ve seen on television lately, is that it is in my mind, criminal that any government should have knowledge of a pending disaster and not do anything to prevent it.
There is much more I could say on this subject, but not here, not today, not tomorrow.
In my humble opinion, based on what I know from a biased network news program, and reinforced by my earlier training as a Marine, I see nothing wrong with President Bush’s actions or supposed lack of action. He can only act on or react too situations based upon the information and requests he gets from the scene.
You will also notice I have ignored some of the nastier references that have surfaced since this emergency has occurred. Mostly cause I intend to stay above those which would drag this country back into the 1920’s.
And as far as getting assets into a disaster area between commercials. Get real folks. Unless you have experienced it, you have no idea what it takes to move even a squad of troops from their base to a location anywhere on this planet. Even movement within the same country requires time and planning. Scotty just can’t beam them up then down into position where they are needed.
How easy it is to criticize when a person has nothing to risk. As some music and Hollywood types love to do.
Hell, stick a fork in me…I’m done here.
It’s Sunday, it’s raining and I am setting here in my BVD’s. Scary visual isn’t it!!!
4 September 2005
Indian Territory
OK. So much for a walk down memory lane.
For those that want to know what brought this on, read the comments to ID Required. I was minding my own business, ignoring the world around me and look what happens. Well Anon, you get what you pay for, when I can figure out where to send the bill.
The question is pointed: What do you think of the way Bushy handled the Katrina thingy…..
From what I have seen, he has handled it one hell of a lot better the Mayor of New Orleans or even the Governor of Louisiana. I shall for the sake of argument, encapsulate the past Mayors and Governors all the way back to Hurricane Camille.
Let me take a side trip for a minute or twelve. For those peoples that think everything happens just as a Hollywood screenwriter writes it, get freaking real folks!
The U.S. Navy once had a wonderful little school at Port Hueneme, California. Which just so happens to be the home of the Navy’s SeaBee’s. The school taught a great course, of which I am a graduate of, called, Disaster Recovery. The school was set up to teach those basic concepts of recovering from a major disaster, either manmade or natural. It taught what was going to be needed to recover an area back to a viable community after mankind or Mother Nature threw a temper tantrum and really messed up a major city.
I know, that statement above is somewhat simplistic, but I do try to keep things that way. Mostly for my own sake. Keeps me from looking up those big words in the Thesaurus.
One feature of Recovery is so simple, most forget that it exists. It was designed to maintain sovereignty of the local governments. It is simply, request what you need.
Did you get that? Request what you need. Shall I describe how it works? Come on folks…. I need some encouragement here!! Ok… better.
Just remember that what follows was developed during the Cold War and devised, revised and otherwise twisted into a useable form by the Civil Defense. Most of this was later transferred to Emergency Management types for the cities, communities which maintained such activities.
So, here we begin.
During an Event, information comes into the Emergency Management Office (EMO) concerning what is needed at a specific location and how soon they need it. (Side Note: I’m using EMO simply cause it works for me. Each city/community has their own name/term, and hopefully you get the drift.)
So, the Liaison desk gets the request from the field. They pass it on to the appropriate coordinator for action. Such as, two (2) dump trucks full of sand/dirt for sandbags needed at 5th and Willow. That request goes to the appropriate desk and not to the Fire Chief. The Liaison collects said requests and notates assets on hand then hands these on to the Mayor who determines who gets what of his limited resources.
Hopefully the Mayor is being properly advised by whatever expert he has in his EMO. Notice I said Hopefully.
OK, so the Mayor finds out he does not have the assets he needs to fulfill requirements. He then has the ability to call on the EMO directly senior to his. Now where I pretend to live, that would be the County EMO. I would like to think that Louisiana has Parrish EMO’s to assist in emergencies.
But as it often the cause in major metropolitan areas, the city and county EMO is consolidated for ease and speed of operation.
If that is the case, next call is too the Governor. And to make this a bit shorter, next would be the President.
Now, here is the real trick. Mayor to Governor……We Need Help! Governor to President…We Need Help! President to Governor… What do you need? Simple sounding situation is it not? And in a real sense it is that simple. But from what I am seeing, everyone is yelling for help and not saying what they actually need. Kind of like going to the store, grabbing a clerk and telling them you need help finding something which you have no idea what it is you came for in the first place.
The President can start many wheels moving simply through his saying so. But, in order to insure that a disaster area receives what it needs, instead of clogged up with basically useless people and equipment, someone needs to tell him exactly what they need him to send them.
Did you get that? Do I need to repeat that? Didn’t think so.
If you need bulldozers to clear debris, you certainly do not ask for a Light Infantry Battalion. You ask for Engineers. And be sure you mention Heavy Construction Engineers, or at least mention the bulldozers.
At this point, the President turns to his advisers and says, call the Chief Engineer of the Army and have him find out how many bulldozers he has available and what it’s going to take to get them into West Slobovia to asset in clean-up. At which point, hopefully someone will actually contact the West Slobovia EMO to find out how many bulldozers they actually need and from which direction it would be best for them to enter the disaster area.
Ok… am I boring anyone here? Toughski Shitski as they use to say in Siberia. This is how things works.
Everything takes time. As difficult as the folks on the ground, in the middle of the target, find the situation, nothing is going to happen according to the sweep of the second hand. And it sure will not happen in Scene 3, Act 2 according to the script in the award winning disaster movie that was on TV last week.
Now for me to double back upon what I bypassed above concerning the noise I was hearing on CNN and other places, just let me say, all I heard was whining by elected officials. Let me hedge this with the knowledge that it is Highly Possible, that no one watching the news of TV received what was actually happening, but what our wonderfully even tempered networks wanted us to see or hear.
So, where does this leave me and this Blog? Almost where I started from. Back at the top or near the top of this article.
Ever since Camille, scientists have examined and studied the possibility of that what has happened to New Orleans was going to happen. Scientists in both the private and government business have known for years that New Orleans was going to flood if a certain set of circumstances occurred. All that was needed was a Category 4 Hurricane which partly strikes Lake Pontchartrain in such a manner that’s the hurricane’s counter-clockwise winds would push the lake waters into and over the levee’s separating New Orleans from the lake.
Hey, this information has been public for years. The Discovery Channel has ran a documentary several times over the past few years concerning this very subject. So, if I am aware of such a problem, I have to consider that the Government of Louisiana and the City Father’s of New Orleans have also known of the possibilities.
And I shall make a statement here, as blind in concept as some of the crap I’ve seen on television lately, is that it is in my mind, criminal that any government should have knowledge of a pending disaster and not do anything to prevent it.
There is much more I could say on this subject, but not here, not today, not tomorrow.
In my humble opinion, based on what I know from a biased network news program, and reinforced by my earlier training as a Marine, I see nothing wrong with President Bush’s actions or supposed lack of action. He can only act on or react too situations based upon the information and requests he gets from the scene.
You will also notice I have ignored some of the nastier references that have surfaced since this emergency has occurred. Mostly cause I intend to stay above those which would drag this country back into the 1920’s.
And as far as getting assets into a disaster area between commercials. Get real folks. Unless you have experienced it, you have no idea what it takes to move even a squad of troops from their base to a location anywhere on this planet. Even movement within the same country requires time and planning. Scotty just can’t beam them up then down into position where they are needed.
How easy it is to criticize when a person has nothing to risk. As some music and Hollywood types love to do.
Hell, stick a fork in me…I’m done here.
It’s Sunday, it’s raining and I am setting here in my BVD’s. Scary visual isn’t it!!!
4 September 2005
Indian Territory
