Tsunami-vs-Katrina

[pjc]

I'm reflecting on the disastrous tsunami that ravaged Indonesia recently. And I am evaluating the timing of rescue efforts as well as relief efforts that took place after the tsunami and now after the awful hurricane Katrina.<br /><br />In my opinion, the response time is very similar for both disasters. Considering the scope and magnitude of natural and weather driven events like these, my opinion is that a damn good job is being done to rescue and help those affected by Katrina. <br /><br />We will always be burdened with the media *****ing and attempting to present a "snap shot" of a situation that satisfies their agenda. <br /><br />My Families prayers to all folks who are rebuilding their lives and existence as a result of the Katrina Hurricane.

 

[Elmer Fudge]

Re: Tsunami-vs-Katrina

Originally posted by pjc:<br /> I'm reflecting on the disastrous tsunami that ravaged Indonesia recently. And I am evaluating the timing of rescue efforts as well as relief efforts that took place after the tsunami and now after the awful hurricane Katrina.<br /><br />In my opinion, the response time is very similar for both disasters. Considering the scope and magnitude of natural and weather driven events like these, my opinion is that a damn good job is being done to rescue and help those affected by Katrina. <br /><br />We will always be burdened with the media *****ing and attempting to present a "snap shot" of a situation that satisfies their agenda. <br /><br />My Families prayers to all folks who are rebuilding their lives and existence as a result of the Katrina Hurricane.

Quite rightly so, There is a never ending supply of unsatisfied small minded people who are incapable of ever seeing the big picture.

 

[eurolarva]

Re: Tsunami-vs-Katrina

This is something I was happy to see<br /> Foreign Aid . It is nice to see others in the world coming to our aid in this crisis.

 

[kenimpzoom]

Re: Tsunami-vs-Katrina

I dont think you can even compare the two. Thousands of dead vs hundreds of thousands dead.<br /><br />As for response time, I think everyone wanted the USA to do better. Considering the scope of the destruction, I think we did a pretty good job. The only place we could have done better was the looting in New Orleans.<br /><br />Ken

 

[Ron G]

Re: Tsunami-vs-Katrina

I think the response time was good for everbody but the states hit,i dont understand why lousianna didnt already have there national gaurd setting up on friday,lookes to me if a state knows a hurricane is coming they should get there gaurd rady and set up stations thats what there for.i understand the ones active ready to go to war cant do that but all the rest can,just curiose about all that.

 

[pjc]

Re: Tsunami-vs-Katrina

I do believe that a comparison is justified. In the Tsumani disaster, given that many (hundreds of thousands) were affected, the Global community assisted. In a time frame similar to the responce that our United States and the Global community is responding to the Hurricane Katrina disaster.<br /><br />I did not consider a body count in considering how the rescue and assistance responce was judged as relevant to the time needed to assist those who survived the disaster.

 

[Elmer Fudge]

Re: Tsunami-vs-Katrina

"Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez offered to send cheap fuel but the State Department said a decision had not been made on whether to accept this offer."<br /><br />______________________________________________________________<br /><br />I say take up the offer, we presently purchase most of our oil from Venezuela.

 

[cmyers_uk]

Re: Tsunami-vs-Katrina

Unfortunately we only see the negative images from the news and unfortunately can comprehend the size of the problem. Presumably large amounts of resources that would normally have been available to assist are else where. From what the media have shown here there appears no co-ordination and things do appear extremely slow but as I say we only see the problems presented by the media

 

[eeboater]

Re: Tsunami-vs-Katrina

Hey Elmer, the Venezuelan Oil is for only the "poor people" in the United States. I was trying to figure out how they were going to do that since all the oil goes to the same refineries.<br /><br />Sean

 

[Fly Rod]

Re: Tsunami-vs-Katrina

pjc!! I think you said it very well!!!

 

[PW2]

Re: Tsunami-vs-Katrina

I think the comparison to the tsunamis is a reasonable one. We were late in recognizing the scope of the destruction then too, when by rights we should have known before their own country knew the devastation. We had satellite photos before and after, (they were published ater the fact) and presumably we have people whose job it is to analyze those photos, yet it took us several days to react.<br /><br />And it was chaos for many days until the scope of the destruction was widely known, and help finally started to arrive.<br /><br />And ultimately the response to the hurricane was on a par with the tsunami, and all in all, about what you could expect from a third world country. I guess if you are all proud of that from the United States, there's not much else to say.

 

[Homerr]

Re: Tsunami-vs-Katrina

I agree... they knew it was coming. You'd think they would have prepared a little better? <br />But was it a matter of "A boy who cried wolf" ? How many of the recent storms came and didn't turn out as bad as they said it would?<br />Maybe people just thought it wasn't that big of a deal?<br /> <br />I really hope they don't rebuild there. It happened before, and it will happen again. How many billions of dollars are we going to spend fixing it?<br /><br />Turn it all into farm land. At least the loss won't be as bead when it does happen again.<br /><br />Don't take me the wrong way.... I feel for the families and their losses... I just hate to see it happen again and again.<br /><br /><br />H.

 

[Tinkr]

Re: Tsunami-vs-Katrina

Originally posted by pjc:<br /> In my opinion, the response time is very similar for both disasters. Considering the scope and magnitude of natural and weather driven events like these, my opinion is that a damn good job is being done to rescue and help those affected by Katrina. <br /><br />

The tsunamai was a far harder operation than Katrina because there was:<br /><br />- Plenty of warning for Katrina, none for the tsunamai.<br /><br />- No serious political obstacles to aid in Katrina, plenty in the tsunamai: e.g. 1. Indonesian reluctance to have foreigners find out on the ground what had been happening in the civil war in Aceh, which had been largely closed to foreigners for years. 2.Indonesian reluctance to have foreign troops, especially Australians after East Timor, on its soil. 3. Muslim opposition to what were perceived as Christian troops in Muslim areas.<br /><br />- Limited geographical obstacles to aid in Katrina as all sources of aid are on land adjacent to the affected areas, where tsunamai aid targets were often in areas with the only access by sea or sea borne air from bases thousands of miles away.<br /><br />- Relative familiarity with and readily accessible information (e.g. maps) about the aid area in Katrina, where there was no familiarity with and limited inforation in the tsunamai.<br /><br />- Relatively compact aid targets in Katrina where tsunamai targets were widely dispersed.<br /><br />- Relatively tight and cohesive lines of communication for aid providers in Katrina, but widely dispersed in tsunamai.<br /><br />- Single central command in Katrina (supposedly), but diverse nations and groups in tsunamai.<br /><br />- Common culture, language, communications systems and so on between aid givers and recipients in Katrina. Exactly the opposite in tsunamai.<br /><br />I suspect the relief operation in Katrina should be running a lot better than it seems to be, even allowing for press sensationalism. It was long known that the levees were safe only for a Category 3 hurricaine and that a Category 5 was coming. It was long known which areas would be flooded if the levees failed. Looting was to be expected. Blind Freddie could have seen that the sewers would be flooded and that essential services like power and water would be cut. Plans should have been made long ago to deal with all these issues and their consequences.<br /><br />If pre-planning had been left to military planners, who are outstanding at planning for much larger scale disaster situations and associated logistical and medical issues (e.g. D-Day), and if the military was running the relief effort, I'm sure that things would be moving a lot better and quicker than they seem to be.<br /><br />So far, this has all the hallmarks of different civilian agencies all doing their own thing without proper co-ordination; maybe with staff who aren't up to the task; and maybe without the authority necessary to make things work out right when disaster hit.<br /><br />It's not a criticism of the people who are doing their best to help now, but I'd be surprised if the eventual inquiries don't show an appalling failure of planning and co-ordination before and after the event by various civilian agencies such as FEMA and the city of NO.<br /><br />From what we're getting here it seems to be exclusively a NO problem. Maybe the only serious failures were with the agencies in NO.