Learning from experience: from Katrina to Harvey and Irma

The disaster response to Katrina was itself a disaster.  But thankfully our governments and other organizations have used the experience to learn from the mistakes of 2005.

The New York Times' Dave Phillips describes the "stumbling leadership and lack of preparation that contributed to the estimated 1,800 deaths in Hurricane Katrina."   Houston has been a different story, and Phillips lists seven key changes that have made all the difference.

1.  Completing paperwork in Advance:  In New Orleans in 2005, it took four days to get approval from federal authorities to send in military help, as no one knew quite the proper protocol and what level of command had to approve the decision.  Now, they pre-approve such requests.    When it came from Houston, the response was quick at the battalion commander level:  "Go save lives;  we've got your back."

2.  Better Plans and More Training:  Reform mandates by Congress require that communities "create a workable disaster plan and train local officials to work with state and federal officials when disaster strikes.   FEMA has spent $2 billion to train and prepare local authorities.

3.  Responders Work Off the Same Playbook:   During Katrina, according to the press secretary for the Louisiana governor:  "We wanted soldiers, helicopters, food and water. . .  They wanted to negotiate an organizational chart."    The difference now, as Phillips says, is that:  "Local and federal authorities now go through the same disaster training and largely work from the same playbook, which means they speak a common language and can work together."

4.  Early Delivery of Emergency Supplies:   During Katrina, debris and flood waters kept trucks with supplies from getting through to the emergency shelters. Now, supplies are pre-delivered where they will be needed.

5.  Hospitals Better Equipped to Evacuate:   This was a big problem during Katrina when a hospital needed to be evacuated, after power and back-up generators had failed.   Bed-ridden patients had to be carried down flights of stairs;  vital life-support devices lacked electricity to operate.    In 2016, Congress instituted a requirement that hospitals that take Medicare and Medicaid patients must have emergency plans and train for them.

6.  Mandatory Experience for FEMA Chief:   I well remember during FEMA the outrage when we learned that President George W. Bush had appointed a crony who had no experience whatsoever in disaster management or even in heading a large organization.   Following that, Congress passed a law requiring the the Director of FEMA must "have years of management experience in the field, so that political appointees with no disaster experience , , ,  could never lead the agency again."   One of the FEMA commanders said last Friday:  "We plan for the worst of the worst, the biggest of the big, and it has served us well."

7.  Enlisting the Public's Help:   In the past, the tendency was to turn away volunteer help because of the fear of liability lawsuits if something went wrong.   That thinking has been abandoned in favor of an attitude of using "citizens as an untapped emergency force" when disasters overwhelm the plan.    In Houston, they put out a call for "anyone with a boat" to come help in the rescue effort.  "The ragtag flotilla that formed has been credited with rescuing thousands of people."   The CEO of Harris County (Houston) said, "I got pushback on the boat decision. . . I violated almost every bureaucratic rule in the book this week.   But I think the decision saved many, many lives."

A retired FEMA official summed it up:  "The realization [is] that disaster response is not just governmental response;  it is a societal response.  The federal government has a role, and so does everybody else."

Man, doesn't it feel good when our government does something RIGHT?  As I write this, Irma is wrecking its havoc on Florida on both coasts.   Such a big storm, such a narrow state.   The entire state has been designated as on hurricane alert. Let's hope that the Florida emergency forces learned their lessons well.

Ralph