What went wrong in hurricane crisis?

As the water begins recede, the question remains, what next? How do you rebuild an entire city? There will be other storms.  How do we prevent them from doing this kind of damage again? And what changes will have to be made on local, state and federal agencies so that the break downs that happened here never happen again

It may take years to fully understand what went wrong—and just as long to figure out how to correct the problems. But some of the people involved in the tragedy of New Orleans have already begun to think about ways to prevent another Katrina.

At the head of the list is Mayor Ray Nagin.

Nagin: I’ll put it to you this way. This process has probably taught the nation what not to do. It is bigger than one agency. It’s bigger than one person, or two people or whatever. We have a system of responding to disasters that is designed way back--that is not modern enough to deal with what we are dealing with. There is no organizational structure -- no clear lines of authority.

Major James Pohlman, of the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff’s Department thinks a good start would be to upgrade communication lines.

Pohlman: You can’t tell me that somehow, someway, they can’t deliver some type of communication system and set it up on the levee system,  the driest area you can find and say, okay we’re here, what do you need?  And radio that out and get the resources in.  I think we could have had bigger resources in the beginning if we’d had better communications.

The head of the National Hurricane Center has this advice:

Mayfield: We’ve said for years that the battle against a hurricane is won not during the hurricane season but outside the season. And we’ve always urged, you know, individuals and families an businesses and communities to develop their own hurricane plan. They need to have that plan in place before the hurricane season gets here.

And when New Orleans finally rebuilds, will there be a way to ultimately protect the city if there is another storm like Katrina?

Al Naomi, from the Army Corps of Engineers thinks it may be tough, but it’s do-able.

Naomi: I think we can protect this city against a Category Five storm, but it is going to take a lot of money and some effort. But it is certainly achievable and the money is nowhere near what it is costing to clean up this city right now. So, a $2 billion to $3 billion system to protect the city from a Category 5 is a small investment.

Nagin: Look man, this my mission now. I’m gonna make sure that this never happens again ever in the history of this country If I have to lobby Congress every day I am going to do it.        

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