Hurricane Rita: What would you do if you're the President?

[bmgs400]

I don't want to start another politcal bashing thread. But with Rita now coming and lessons learned from Katrina, what would you do? How would you help people looking at disaster coming their way? ..and some do need help! I thought of making a poll for this thread, but my selections may not include all options and could be misconstruded.

I'll be first.

I would not put the responsibililty on FEMA since we know they're not ready for showtime. Too much riding on this. I would instead have the National Gaurd mobilized near the strike zone and prepared to set up a temporary base for housing people that need it. Medical attention and food will be provided. All this would be within the confines of a temporary military base with MPs gaurding entrance/exit points for safety. An incident like at the NO dome won't happen, they'd be arrested on site. I'd make darn sure the resources are available....NOW.

[RON430]

Originally Posted by bmgs400

I don't want to start another politcal bashing thread. But with Rita now coming and lessons learned from Katrina, what would you do? How would you help people looking at disaster coming their way? ..and some do need help! I thought of making a poll for this thread, but my selections may not include all options and could be misconstruded.

I'll be first.

I would not put the responsibililty on FEMA since we know they're not ready for showtime. Too much riding on this. I would instead have the National Gaurd mobilized near the strike zone and prepared to set up a temporary base for housing people that need it. Medical attention and food will be provided. All this would be within the confines of a temporary military base with MPs gaurding entrance/exit points for safety. An incident like at the NO dome won't happen, they'd be arrested on site. I'd make darn sure the resources are available....NOW.

Oh boy. This is not meant to be a flame but you might want to do some research. National Guards are first and foremost state organizations. They can be activated by DoD but I doubt that would help right now. Basically the governor of Texas and probably LA need to mobilise their National Guard and prepare their resources. The pres has a big machine at his disposal but jumping the gun leaves him open to as much criticism as being behind the curve. For now he needs to activate whatever is available to the Feds and let's not forget that to satisfy the cries for blame, the FEMA head resigned (as distinguished by the Mayor of NO and the gov of LA doing radio and TV shows). Beyond that, the prez probably needs to reach out and touch the gov of Texas and have a chit chat. Pretty unsatisfying huh?

It is up to the local officials to decide what resources they want and where and whatever they can't put together, contact the governor. Whatever the governor sees that he needs but doesn't have, he contacts the Feds, maybe the prez maybe not. If you want the skies full of DoD helos, you have to decide to put them at risk in potential storm zones, don't forget we don't know exactly where Rita is coming ashore, or have them safely out of Rita's embrace. And Rita has a great big embrace right now. If you want any access to all those helos you want to have after Rita moves on, it's a good idea to not have them wadded up in a ball or under water in a local airfield. Whatever the prez needs to do, it probably should not be determined by people who haven't been exposed to the complexities of the situation. And I think that includes everyone here.

[O. L. T.]

if i were the pres, i'd hand it over to the vice and make him chief operations.

Kitchen heat<------------------------------------- > pres

[bmgs400]

Come on people. Quit side-stepping and passing the buck. The country is in your hands ( or our hands)...your responsibility. Damn the helos and any bad press, the people are what matter the most, not scoring points. You can flame me all you want, I don't care about that. I want some THOUGHTS and ORIGINAL ideas. Using an old Navy term, we need to go into "Battleshort" mode and finish the job...damn any torpedos.

[bitkahuna]

As President I would hold frequent meetings or conference calls (maybe one in the a.m. and one in the p.m.) with the Federal, state and military officials to not only make sure they were getting what they ask for but also to review their plans as a team to ensure there's concensus that everything that can be thought of has been for before, during and after the event, and that the plans for several scenarios are sound. Keep at it until there's agreement on the plans, the division of responsibilities, and until the event has passed and the clean up is proceeding properly.

I might also hold a press conference with the governor of Texas AHEAD of the storm to discuss preparedness, show good collaboration and concern and to JOINTLY tell people to get the hell out of that area.

[RON430]

Originally Posted by bmgs400

Come on people. Quit side-stepping and passing the buck. The country is in your hands ( or our hands)...your responsibility. Damn the helos and any bad press, the people are what matter the most, not scoring points. You can flame me all you want, I don't care about that. I want some THOUGHTS and ORIGINAL ideas. Using an old Navy term, we need to go into "Battleshort" mode and finish the job...damn any torpedos.

Consider the realities of the situation as you will. If you want to consider it side stepping, so be it. But if you are not playing a video game, understanding the structure that everyone is operating under is the first step to doing anything that might actually save lives. Brainstorming might seem like a viable business strategy when you are selling dirt on the internet but as for saving lives from a disaster, it takes some adult supervision.

From the little I know about what is going on, W is going more than what is strictly approved and falls under his responsibility. The military has been instructed, and is prepositioning assets right now. Maybe the biggest thing going on now to save people's lives is there seems to be a much better desire of the unfortunates in harm's way to get out. One of the arguments you heard after Katrina was that the poor locals were not aware the storm was coming and would be serious. I think that was a huge bunch of revisionist victimthink. But even if you do buy it, there was nothing W could do about it. There are going to be those who say that Texas is doing much more for preparation because of Katrina but I am not sure I believe it. It is just the difference between somewhere with active and thinking local government instead of that useless mayor and governor that LA has. We are probably with abou 36 to 48 hours of landfall, so realistically there is maybe 24 hours to do anything. Then it is just watch and wait.

[WhiteTiger]

Here is what I would do.....(ok so I cheated)

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stor...n_x.htm?csp=24


Didn't post the text of this so it wouldn't influence people's posts about what they would do.


But it appears that the right people learned quite a bit from Katrina in a very short time.

[bmgs400]

Hum I thought this thread would be more fun. Maybe I shouldn't have used the term "President" in the title. Anyway, I'm glad for what positive input that was given.

Needless to say, many gulf coast communities are rethinking evacuation routes and plans. I know mine is. Phased evacuation should have been used for Houston area...or some mechanism to control the flow of traffic onto the highways leaving the city might have helped traffic flow out.

I know it's a tuff subject to discuss. There's no simple solution. No blaming to Bush or anyone was intended. Our country has come together to help one another...that's important to know. Expediting help is another ball game.