It's About Time We Got Ready To Cope With Disaster

(Aired March 16, 2010 )

I am struggling with the fact that, until yesterday, we did not have a national emergency plan in place in this country.

Given the potential for any number of potential disasters, from flooding to earthquakes to toxic spills, it is absolutely astounding to me that we did not have an official plan in place to deal with these emergencies. I know that individual departments had some plans in place for emergencies, but there didn't seem to be a coordinated plan approved by cabinet. That's pretty hard to believe.

This new plan apparently has as its focus getting everyone on the same page. Wonder why it took this long to make that happen. I know that we've coped with emergencies in the past, but it seems to me that we could have let a lot slip through the cracks in not having a coordinated plan. Under the new plan, emergency response efforts will be coordinated. You mean they weren't doing that before? What were they doing?

When a disaster strikes, you have to be able to move quickly and seamlessly. That seems like pretty simple math. So the question remains, what kind of plan did we have in place when we had emergencies before?

When there's a disaster, you have to be able to pull out the protocol and get everything moving. The city and TNRD have good plans in place, but the feds don't? What would we have done if a big disaster hit? Something beyond the scope of the plans put in place by municipalities and regional districts.

It's pretty scary to think we didn't have a proper plan in place to take care of all the contingencies. I guess the good thing is we now have a plan in place and hopefully that will help should disaster strike. Hopefully it won't take as long enacting the plan in an emergency as it took to put the plan in place.