With all due respect, please let's be realistic. The threat to New Orleans
was identified years ago. Long before Katrina, some of our colleagues had
been working intensively to get some form of preparedness and mitigation
plans, but their pleas fell on deaf ears.
I also provided advice to practitioners a few years ago regarding how to
respond to a major flood event in New Orleans. The practitioners could not
get anywhere with doing what needed to be done to prepare. FEMA, DHS, and
the White House have been warned time and time again that the U.S.A.'s
ability to respond to an environmental catastrophe was suffering.
We are dealing with human beings. The mess in Darfur is no excuse for the
mess in the southern U.S.A. In both instances, and many others that we see,
what could happen was known, how to deal with it was known, the resources
were available, and little was done. Let's be realistic. There is no
excuse for what we see.
Ilan
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