EDITORIAL CATACLYSMIC FAILURE FOUR YEARS AFTER 9-11, WE SHOULD BE BETTER PREPARED.THE ultimate toll of human lives lost due to Hurricane Katrina  Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism. won't be known for awhile, though officials speculate it could top
10,000. If that's the case - and let's all hope that it
isn't - it would make this disaster far worse than the Sept. 11
attacks that claimed more than 3,000.
What makes it so incomprehensible for many is not that this tragedy happened in the first place - natural disasters are, well, natural. What staggers staggers /stag·gers/ (stag´erz) a form of vertigo occurring in decompression sickness. staggers incoordination of any kind, including a tendency to fall, and recumbency if harassed. the imagination is the federal emergency response system, which had supposedly been strengthened and improved in the four years since Sept. 11, failed so spectacularly. For four years, the Years, The the seven decades of Eleanor Pargiter’s life. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 1109] See : Time country collectively gave federal leaders the authority to direct billions of dollars to secure our homeland from both terrorism and disasters, weapons of mass destruction Weapons that are capable of a high order of destruction and/or of being used in such a manner as to destroy large numbers of people. Weapons of mass destruction can be high explosives or nuclear, biological, chemical, and radiological weapons, but exclude the means of transporting or and storms of mass destruction. Federal agencies were realigned. Local and federal law enforcement got new training and equipment. Communications systems and protocols were established. Plans of response prepared in every agency across the country. Or so we thought. But then the floodwaters came. Then the looting began. Then what was left of New Orleans New Orleans (ôr`lēənz –lənz, ôrlēnz`), city (2006 pop. 187,525), coextensive with Orleans parish, SE La., between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, 107 mi (172 km) by water from the river mouth; founded descended into anarchy. Then thousands stranded in the convention center and Superdome and elsewhere were suffering from lack of food, water, medicine, some even dying because of the lack of a rapid response. Americans deserve an explanation from federal authorities as to what has happened to the federal emergency response system. How can we believe that the country is adequately prepared for an unforeseen attack when a catastrophe that was predicted for days is beyond our capacity? ``We want to make sure that we can respond properly if there's a WMD WMD white muscle disease. attack or another major storm,'' President George W. Bush told the country Tuesday, saying he would find out what went wrong. Indeed, public confidence in the emergency response system has been shattered, and the president must conduct a speedy and thorough investigation. Clearly, those who failed must be held accountable, and the homeland security Noun 1. Homeland Security - the federal department that administers all matters relating to homeland security Department of Homeland Security executive department - a federal department in the executive branch of the government of the United States system overhauled as soon as possible. |
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