The “fact sheet” is available over at WaPo.
Is it bad that my first reaction to the “fact sheet” is That We Have An Administration That Cannot Apparently Heed The Rules of Written English Grammar?
The report itself can be found on whitehouse.gov. I’ve only briefly skimmed through the document, but I do have a couple of thoughts:
- We really need some literate folks in the Executive Branch. It’s one thing to relax grammar in informal communications, but to have subject-verb agreement issues in a White House document? Come on, now!
- The recommendations are almost exclusively restricted to the Federal/Executive level. They include only minimal references to coordination with state and local officials. That’s probably understandable, given that this is a White House commissioned review of how executive branch agencies functioned…but part of the tragedy was in the breakdown of the coordination among local, state, and federal agencies.
- Am I the only person bothered by the fact that the “what went right” section is almost as long as the recommendations? Yes, it’s important to recognize and improve upon those things that worked well. However, given the nature of the aftermath….I’m not too sure that I’d ring the bell over how many things went right.
- There are a few recommendations that seem to be missing. I’d like to see the following, for example:
- A semi-standardized repository for local, state, and federal disaster response plans. From my vantage point, it seemed entirely possible that a disaster plan may have existed…but not enough people knew about it and/or were willing to stick with it. The feds seemed limited by lack of knowledge of what plans were in place/underway, as well as generally being unfamiliar with the lay of the land. While you can’t educate every government official on every possible scenario, it’d be nice if everyone knew where the play book was, and how to access it, in the event that crap happens.
- The report calls for representatives of different agencies familiar with those agencies’ available resources to be embedded with response teams. It would be nice if that information (again, at the local, state, and federal levels) were also available to officials in database forms. Therefore, if the right representative can’t be found…or if a relevant official drowns while drinking a glass of chocolate milk…the information is there.
- I’m not sure that the report really picked up on the problem of having too many chiefs with competing plans and priorities. There really ought to be a clearer chain of command in a disaster situation — one person with the authority to make things happen…and who can be quickly replaced if he/she isn’t making the right things happen. Yes internal checks/balances are generally necessary to avoid wastage and corruption…but I think if there’s ever a time to waive such requirements, it’s when there are tens of thousands of people on their roofs waiting for rescue.
- The reports that I’ve seen have all decried breakdowns in communication, a problem that was also evident on 9/11. Shouldn’t somebody have said by now, “frequencies x, y, and z shall be designated as disaster management channels; all federal/state/local government radios shall be able to send and receive on those frequencies”?
- I’m going to be in a minority and risk sounding insensitive here…but while figuring out what went wrong within the government agencies is a good and necessary exercise, perhaps some study should occur with where the victims could have done better? There’s a recommendation that everyone be prepared to survive 48-72 hours without utilities and assistance in the event of a disaster. Perhaps it’s time to provide more education and encouragement to make such preparation occur, as well as providing assistance to those who are unable to make such plans. We seem to have forgotten that self-reliance and personal responsibility are important values, even in this finger-pointing culture we live in.
- A semi-standardized repository for local, state, and federal disaster response plans. From my vantage point, it seemed entirely possible that a disaster plan may have existed…but not enough people knew about it and/or were willing to stick with it. The feds seemed limited by lack of knowledge of what plans were in place/underway, as well as generally being unfamiliar with the lay of the land. While you can’t educate every government official on every possible scenario, it’d be nice if everyone knew where the play book was, and how to access it, in the event that crap happens.