There has been a lot running through my mind ever since Hurricane Katrina and the response time to save the survivors and how most of this could have been avoided.
Is Memphis, TN ready to react to the dangers of an earthquake or even that of a massive tornado? Is any city ready or even prepared to respond if something were to happen to their city? Would you trust Willie Herrington with your life? I am guessing not.
It seems that the evacuation process in New Orleans was flawed. To have a near perfect evacuation process I believe the following needs to be taken into account prior to a natural disaster.
- Every city in the US needs to have a back-up city or more that can accommodate the people evacuating.
- We have rails systems that can be use to evacuate large numbers of people if there is advance notice. Even if there is not advance notice it could still be an option. New Orleans could have had shuttles to the Local Amtrak station and evacuated people via rail prior to Katrina.
- We have numerous military bases closing daily that need to be reopened with special troops to handle emergency that happen on our own soil not in Iraq. This based needs to have special housing sections in case people need to be transported there.
- Each city needs to have emergency warehouses scattered throughout the city with emergency supplies so we do not have to wait days for food and water.
- Emergency personnel need to have a better form of communication. Katrina wiped out every form of communication, so those in the field could not be told where to go.
- When there is a mandatory evacuation, everyone needs to get out.
I even believe people could have been evacuated after the Hurricane much quicker. Rescuing people by chopper is great, but you can only rescue 2 people at a time. The military could have brought in any amphibious vehicles use to transport military personnel and driven them through the streets. Taken all the people to the nearest working rail terminal and evacuated people via rail cars. When New Orleans get back to where they once were they need to invest in amphibious transport and park them outside the city in case a disaster like this were to ever happen again.
I hope this get all cities in the US to start thinking of evacuation procedure now before it is too late. I hope Memphis has a back up plan in case we have the massive earthquake people are predicting will hit here sometime in the future.
