The Clipboard: Storm disaster fuels doubts over US terror plans

From an article¹:

Hurricane Katrina's devastation of New Orleans -- and the delay helping stranded people get out or even get water and food -- is raising doubts that U.S. cities may be ill-prepared to cope with a potentially worse disaster: a major attack.

Four years after the September 11, 2001, attacks, the storm disaster marked the first time the federal government has invoked its post-September 11 response plan aimed at enhancing Washington's ability to deal with national incidents.

But as Americans reeled at images of death and desperation among the city's refugees, experts on domestic security said a nuclear or biological attack on a big U.S. city could cause greater mayhem, and unlike the storm, come without warning.

The New Orleans disaster is already viewed as an illustration of what can go wrong in an American city under siege.

"In many ways, this is a test of our national capacity," said James Carafano, senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation. "If we can't do this 24-7-365, we aren't doing our job for preparedness."

In New Orleans, largely submerged in flood waters, the plan was unable to cope with tens of thousands of desperate refugees who could not escape the city. (link)

This really gets me too. What the hell has the Department of Homeland Security been doing for the last several years? What if this had been a terrorist attack? And yet, there are still people (though hopefully a dwindling number of them) who believe that Bush is strong on homeland security. God preserve us.

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Complete text of the article, Storm disaster fuels doubts over US terror plans, by David Morgan

Hurricane Katrina's devastation of New Orleans -- and the delay helping stranded people get out or even get water and food -- is raising doubts that U.S. cities may be ill-prepared to cope with a potentially worse disaster: a major attack.

Four years after the September 11, 2001, attacks, the storm disaster marked the first time the federal government has invoked its post-September 11 response plan aimed at enhancing Washington's ability to deal with national incidents.

But as Americans reeled at images of death and desperation among the city's refugees, experts on domestic security said a nuclear or biological attack on a big U.S. city could cause greater mayhem, and unlike the storm, come without warning.

The New Orleans disaster is already viewed as an illustration of what can go wrong in an American city under siege.

"In many ways, this is a test of our national capacity," said James Carafano, senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation. "If we can't do this 24-7-365, we aren't doing our job for preparedness."

In New Orleans, largely submerged in flood waters, the plan was unable to cope with tens of thousands of desperate refugees who could not escape the city.

"There are a whole host of factors that you can practice against. But to be honest, it's not the same as living through it," said Frank Cilluffo, director of George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute.

The relief effort has been led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, part of the sprawling Department of Homeland Security created after the 2001 attacks. President George W. Bush acknowledged on Friday that relief efforts so far had been unacceptable.

Officials said deaths in New Orleans were in the hundreds and probably in the thousands. But the human toll could be far worse if caused by terrorism, experts said.

Intelligence officials have long warned of the danger of Islamic extremists setting off a nuclear, biological or chemical weapon in a city. Attackers could also wreak havoc by destroying a nuclear power plant or a hydro-electric dam.

"If you had a nuclear explosion and fire or something biological in New Orleans, you'd have seen tens of thousands of casualties," Carafano said. "We don't really have the capacity to mobilize the medical support for catastrophic terrorism."

Only a handful of cities already hit by terrorism or catastrophic natural disaster, such as New York, Washington and Miami, have adequate emergency systems, experts said.

New Orleans' emergency responders were plagued by communications trouble that raised comparisons with problems faced by the police and firefighters who responded to the 2001 attack on New York's World Trade Center.

When Katrina roared ashore, it downed transmission towers needed to maintain radio and cellular telephone contact between emergency crews. Many have had to get by with walkie-talkies.

"What were they thinking? You know a hurricane's going to knock down cell phone towers," said Paul Light, professor of public service at New York University.

He and others said cities should have spent federal homeland-security money for satellite telephones and criticized the federal government for not assigning higher funding priorities to communities facing the greatest risks.

reference=http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-09-02T150106Z_01_BAU254068_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-WEATHER-KATRINA-TERRORISM-DC.XML