It's inevitable that as Rita get's ready to cause havoc all along the Gulf Coast of Texas that comparisons will be made with the Hurricane Katrina Disaster less then a month before. Are these comparisons fair seeing as how the Local state and Federal Government had the lessons of Katrina to draw upon. While it may or may not be fair to do a direct comparison because with Hurricane Katrina fresh in the minds of the People one would expect a better response. It certainly is fair to see what was done better with Rita and possibly what can be done in future disasters. Clearly the Evacuation for Hurricane Rita is going along much better then the one for Hurricane Katrina. The City of Galveston has been evacuating poor and sick people on buses. An Estimated 50% of the City of Houston has evacuated. One problem that will hopefully be fixed in a future disaster is the nasty Traffic Jam out of Houston. Possibly making the Entire 45 Highway North Bound for all lanes would lesson the congestion. Fema and the National Guard have proportioned assets. Steps are being taken to keep families together and parents are being advised to place bracelets with name and address information or other forms of Identification with Young Children. The communication channels between all levels of government on the surface appears to be better. The City of Houston has even set up a special 311 number for people with special needs and concerns to call. Right now all we can do is hope and pray that Hurricane Rita does as little damage as possible. Surely the mass evacuation should minimize human suffering. When the wind and the rain stops and the search and rescue and cleanup begins more comparisons can and will be made. Hopefully the Hurricane Rita scorecard for government response will be much better then that for Hurricane Katrina (It would be hard to be worse). Hopefully when the commission studies what went wrong with Hurricane Katrina they will also draw on the experience of Hurricane Rita so they can do an even better job next time. |
