Don't Tread on Me, but make sure I don't stand on a roof for five days

"I think what will be happening here and across the country is people will be looking at what level official orders and evacuation or requests of evacuation. It won't be just reevaluating routes used because we only have one major north-south corridor here, I-5. On a good day I-5 is massive gridlock."
-- Gil Kerlikowske, Seattle Chief of Police

Dan at Riehl World View has expressed thoughtful disagreement with points I made in yesterday's post. I find myself in complete agreement with the spirit of his disagreement and I heartily suggest you give his thoughts consideration. In arguing against turning to a federalized military "fix" Dan notes in part:

If we abandon any hope for our civilian government to operate effectively at the Federal level and fail to shore up local governmental accountability and the possible re-kindling of some sense of a decentralized Civil Defense in co-operation with the National Guard, exempt from Posse Comitatus except when federalized, by the way -- we won't be solving anything. We'll simply be sweeping the problem under the rug and institutionalizing failure.

Hear! Hear! However, it's late in the day to be calling for reforms of government at local levels. This kind of discussion should have been going on during the past five years. Better late than never but while we're hashing things out, forming commissions and committees and threatening to throw the bastids out at the voting both, we need to remember just how late in the day this is.

I thought of that while watching Americans stand on their roofs waiting for helicopter rescue in Katrina's wake. Reminded me of the joke about the man who drowned, then asked God on reaching heaven why He hadn't answered his prayers for help. God told him that he'd answered three times: First with a boat, then with a ladder, then with a helicopter. But the man had continued to insist that divine help be in the form of making the floodwaters go away.

Make no mistake: even with the federal military in charge, communities need to be prepared to hold out at least 72 hours before they can assume the cavalry will arrive. So all communities in this country have their work cut out for them.

In the meantime, we need the military in readiness to take charge if disaster strikes large numbers of Americans. The Indonesians got the benefit of US military efficiency in the wake of a tsunami; Americans deserve at least that much. Yet for that, we need to nail down legal questions and determine with precision the situations under which command and control automatically pass to the military.

In summary, I agree with Dan's view but I am unwilling to risk large numbers of Americans dying for principles that for decades have only been defended with lip service.

I want to make sure that lines of command and control are clearly established in a disaster; I want to be assured that every community knows exactly what they can expect from the US military when local resources for dealing with disaster are overwhelmed.

The quote I used to introduce this essay is taken from last night's PBS NewsHour. Margaret Warner gathered three officials involved with disaster planning:

> Edward Reiskin, deputy mayor for public safety and justice for Washington, DC.

> Carlos Castillo, director of Miami-Dade County's office of emergency management and the county's deputy fire chief.

> Gil Kerlikowske.

Margaret asked the panelists what lessons their cities took from the hurricanes and how this affected planning. The answers are instructive, and give a glimmer of hope that cities around the country will upgrade their disaster preparedness -- not just talk about it, but actually do it.

Click here for the NewsHour transcript; scroll down to "Discussing Evacuation Plans."