Hurricane Katrina’s first anniversary was, in its way, just as spectacular and significant a remembrance as 9-11’s.
Here are two tragedies, equally as dramatic, but for opposite reasons.
September 11th was about foreigners attacking our homeland. It was international in nature. Katrina was purely domestic, dealing with internal, national concerns.
9-11 demonstrated that we couldn’t always protect ourselves from determined outside aggression. Katrina taught us that we couldn’t always protect ourselves from ourselves.
With the spotlight shining brightly on the Executive Branch, some unsightly messes became visible.
Avoiding any political ranting or partisan pandering, it was apparent that Katrina crippled those in the executive branches at all governmental levels: national, state, and local.
A year later, are there any bright spots? Have we learned anything?
One thing is for certain. If Mother Nature decides to challenge us again meteorologically, the outcome is a given. We’ll get walloped – again.
Our human powers and prowess pale horribly in comparison to unimaginable natural forces.
Our only hope is that our human response, recovery, and rebuilding can be performed quickly and cost effectively. We don’t want to hear again of enormous sums of money apparently wasted, going to businesses which are unable or unwilling to fulfill the terms of their government contracts.
I heard one recent report that FEMA is deploying trailers in Virginia in anticipation of future need. That’s a positive start, and evidence of having learned an important lesson. Rather than await storm damage and mobilize a response from faraway centralized sites, we can develop multiple stockpiles, which can be delivered more quickly to areas of critical need.
Katrina’s anniversary is a milestone. It causes us to reflect on the suffering wrought by natural and governmental actions (or inactions), and to realize how important it is for the executive branches of government to coordinate plans, work closely together, and deliver effective relief as needed.
If we have really learned that lesson, we’re much better off today than one year ago.
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Fred W. Apelquist III, M.Ed.
Approximately 330 words.
© September, 2006