Caught Unprepared? (inexperienced federal leadership FEMAs Brown)

[Shallah Kali]

CAUGHT UNPREPARED?

DISASTER EXPERTS BLAME NEW FOCUS ON TERRORISM

http://www.kansas.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/12532185.htm


The slowness is all too familiar to Kate Hale. As Miami's disaster chief during Hurricane Andrew, Hale asked: ``Where the hell's the cavalry?''

SNIP

Being prepared for a disaster is basic emergency management, experts said.

In the 1990s, for example, while planning for a New Orleans nightmare scenario, the federal government figured it would predeploy nearby ships with pumps to remove water from the below-sea-level city and have hospital ships nearby, said James Lee Witt, who was FEMA director under President Clinton and won bipartisan praise on Capitol Hill.

Bush administration officials said a hospital ship would leave from Baltimore on Friday.