Isle officials should plan
for better disaster relief

I am a retired Federal Emergency Management Agency engineer living in Hawaii, having worked for 24 years with the agency and leaving it 3 1/2 years ago. I have participated in more than 15 presidentially declared disasters as a public assistance officer, PA team leader, PA inspector (for those who know the lingo) and many other jobs on disaster duty. I also was a member of the Federal Response Team and had knowledge of the Federal Response Plan.

I was shocked at what I saw and read about with respect to the human suffering in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. It was always known in the agency that a catastrophic hurricane would provide unique challenges for the city of New Orleans. The physical damages to the levees and infrastructure of the city were predictable, inevitable and unpreventable with given restraints to funding. However, there is no excuse for the tragic and horrifying loss of human life.

In a smaller disaster, the way that FEMA operates is that: the disaster and damage happen; the governor estimates the damage; if it meets certain criteria, the governor requests a federal declaration from the president; if approved, almost unlimited federal resources are put into action.

In a catastrophic disaster, it is possible for FEMA to activate the Federal Response Plan, which can put into action resources before the disaster hits -- at least that was the plan several years ago. These resources, when properly and efficiently coordinated with state and local officials, can prevent human loss of life. FEMA also is (or at least was and should be) authorized to preposition resources without setting into action the FRP.

My request to Governor Lingle and Mayor Hannemann is to immediately determine from the FEMA regional office in Oakland, Calif., the limits of help available from FEMA within the scope of the Federal Response Plan, or any prepositioning of resources that FEMA can offer outside of the FRP before a catastrophic hurricane hits any of the Hawaiian Islands.

It is hard for the general public to determine who was at fault for the incredible loss of life in the wake of Katrina, but there is little doubt as to how that loss of life could have been prevented. Efficient and prompt coordination of the need for transportation out of the city to safe holding areas would have prevented all but a little of the loss of human life and human suffering that has been witnessed. It is likely that the mayor of New Orleans did not fully understand the extent of the problem, that the governor and mayor did not communicate that problem among themselves and that FEMA was the last to get in on the communication network. In that case, all are to blame.

I hope that there is what we used to call a "hotwash" (evaluation) carried out soon, to determine what went wrong with the localstatefederal response, that the wrongdoers are given due reprimands, and that this type of scenario is never repeated on American soil.