> A "floatilla of aid" TURNED BACK from New Orleans...Explain!
5 September 2005, 06:12
Lack of leadership abounds in this tragedy. Until the National Guard arrived, there just was no one in charge. To be in charge, you have to be on the ground where the action is located, not in some Bureaucratic office hundreds of miles away. Decisions have to be made on the battlefield and that was and is in New Orleans. A good leader is on location making decisions and giving orders. The red tape must be cut immediately by the man in charge. If the director of FEMA had been on location on Monday, he could have ordered all of the relief to the most needy spots and the suffering could have been alleviated. If he had been on I-10 in downtown New Orleans in the sweltering heat, you can bet that water would have arrived the same day.
The second major failure was the same that occured following 9/11. The radio communications are not on the same wavelength. No one’s radio will communicate directly with anyone else’s radio. It is doubtful that if the director of FEMA had been present on Monday that he could have talked by radio to the Police Chief, National Guard and State Highway Patrol chief at the same time. It is inexcusable that in times of emergencies that we have no real communications. I’m sure the answer is simple. Have all of the dispatchers on the same frequency and have all agency heads with satellite phones so they can talk to each other. Army Generals can talk to their leaders in the field, so why can’t we have cross communications between agencies carrying out emergency duties. Even in some cities, the policemen can’t talk to the fire department commanders and they can’t talk to the EMS crews and none can talk to the mayor or city manager. With the billions being spent on Homeland Security, you would think that by now they could have all gotten a radio on which they could all communicate. I’m sure that the telephone companies would be glad to solve this problem for a price if the radio companies can’t. In this day of enlightened electronics, the inability to communicate across the spectrum of government agencies is inexcusable.
C. L. Ray
Lawyer
Lack of leadership abounds in this tragedy. Until the National Guard arrived, there just was no one in charge. To be in charge, you have to be on the ground where the action is located, not in some Bureaucratic office hundreds of miles away. Decisions have to be made on the battlefield and that was and is in New Orleans. A good leader is on location making decisions and giving orders. The red tape must be cut immediately by the man in charge. If the director of FEMA had been on location on Monday, he could have ordered all of the relief to the most needy spots and the suffering could have been alleviated. If he had been on I-10 in downtown New Orleans in the sweltering heat, you can bet that water would have arrived the same day.
The second major failure was the same that occured following 9/11. The radio communications are not on the same wavelength. No one’s radio will communicate directly with anyone else’s radio. It is doubtful that if the director of FEMA had been present on Monday that he could have talked by radio to the Police Chief, National Guard and State Highway Patrol chief at the same time. It is inexcusable that in times of emergencies that we have no real communications. I’m sure the answer is simple. Have all of the dispatchers on the same frequency and have all agency heads with satellite phones so they can talk to each other. Army Generals can talk to their leaders in the field, so why can’t we have cross communications between agencies carrying out emergency duties. Even in some cities, the policemen can’t talk to the fire department commanders and they can’t talk to the EMS crews and none can talk to the mayor or city manager. With the billions being spent on Homeland Security, you would think that by now they could have all gotten a radio on which they could all communicate. I’m sure that the telephone companies would be glad to solve this problem for a price if the radio companies can’t. In this day of enlightened electronics, the inability to communicate across the spectrum of government agencies is inexcusable.
C. L. Ray
Lawyer