The most beautiful and amazing plans of an architect are useless unless the builder gets a set. It is unrealistic to expect a builder to construct what the architect is imagining unless the builder actually gets to see and touch the detailed construction plans. That set of plans is the communication between the architect and builder. Our nation's preparation is obviously much more detailed and important than a set of construction plans, however, we must realize that there are so many aspects to responding to an event that we absolutely cannot expect success without communicating the needs and ideas among all players.

When the cell phone and land line systems are inoperable, and radios don't work beyond a short distance without repeaters, our capabilites are brought to a halt. There were hundreds of examples of crippling attempts to communicate in our recent national disasters. There are far too many to list here.

One of my coworkers (Bill Hand) noticed that we mostly overlooked a very easily accessible resource for communications in the US. There is an entire country wide network of communicators out there who are self sufficient and prepared. I am talking about Ham Radio Operators. They would provide an unbelievable netork for us to use when cell phones and land lines are out of service. We should include them wholeheatedly. Bill and I had a chance to speak to several of them post hurricanes. They expressed that they would have been more than willing to initiate their network. Their network is established with an organizational structure that you would expect of a national corporate entity. Most of them own their own supplemental power generation equipment and maintain it in a fully ready state, at their own expense.

It brought back memories of the old Civil Defense system. Perhaps we should regenerate that system. There were many beneficial components associated with it. Those plans are already drawn up. We just need to modernize them.

Instead of waiting until another emergency hits, we need to clarify roles, jurisdictions, and who has the authority to coordinate NOW. Katrina showed us that when local communities are wiped out, the state and federal response systems sit back and look at each other expecting the other to act first or submit formal requests for assistance.

We need training. More training, better training, and refresher training. In order to help prevent the maladies listed above, we need to train in the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the principles of Unified Command. These courses were designed by FEMA. Educate us so we can practice what we preach!

In theory, a new system of coordination is great. But, we need to practice. The government should host or subsidize more mock disaster exercises. Exercises should encourage participation from all levels of government. Practice coordination before lives depend on it.

I enjoyed reading your website and as a 31-year federal employee, I'm glad to see the issue of image being addressed.

I'm a civil engineer working for the Army Corps of Engineers in Sacramento, CA. I spent September 05 in the parishes around New Orleans on tdy for FEMA. I have therefore been employed by the two most notorious and reviled agencies especially in the Gulf region.

With FEMA, my 30-day job was to find, visit, and obtain information on and easements for properties which may be used to place trailers for displaced people. I would describe the organization as chaotic and dysfunctional. To get into specifics would consume more time than I have to write or that you would want to spend reading.

One common theme I've heard for many years is how government needs to learn from and become more like private business and that private businesses should have a greater role in activities now performed by government employees.

The FEMA effort was run by a private firm: "ATCS-Fluor". Mind you I have the greatest respect for the individuals I worked with at the staff level. I am, however, confident in saying that to a person each one of us suffered the same frustration due to the lack of organization in the organization we were reporting to.

Early in the investigation into the cause of the New Orleans floodwall failures, a few newspapers reported that these structures were: 1. designed by the firm "Modjeski and Masters", 2. the design was challenged by a government employee reviewing the plans out of the Corps' Vicksburg office and 3. Higher level officials at the Corps' New Orleans office overruled the review challenge. If this is correct, a very unfair aspersion has been cast on staff level government employees.

I wish that the media would pay more attention to this process. Perhaps it will happen in the lawsuits. High level Army Corps of Engineers officials have apparently taken responsibility for this failure on behalf of the Corps without distinguishing the roles of private vs. public.

One of the key failures of government in the years leading up to Katrina was the failure to implement a universal spatial reference system, the US National Grid. Plans,response/recovery ops....

Coordination was one of the most used words in all of the post-Katrina after-actions. Having a simple yet powerful means of giving a location, in what is seen as a "map-driven enterprise" (www.emergencymanagement.org) is critical.

NIMS, unified command/control, ICS without the most logical use of powerful tools to enhance "coordination," maps with a common grid, equipment like GPS set to same, don't work nearly so well... "operational friction."

Read the above referenced web site where the professionals from the Marines-Chemical Biological Incident Response Force call (pre-Katrina) this failure "a critical deficiency in U.S. consequence management."

Katrina added the exclamation points!!!

Former FEMA Director James Lee Witt has a nice paper up on ComCARE calling in 02/2002 this need for USNG (counterpart to MGRS used for fifty years around the world) a "must have...," "better served early...." (Link to the ComCARE article also on above site or google "comcare witt usng".

Some progress now, but given the need was documented and put into the military Field Manual for Domestic Support Operations one year after Hurricane Andrew; given this White House called USNG right after 9/11 "one of the three most immediate important things government could do to improve Homeland Security"; and especially given it just makes so much frelling sense in so many ways... it's time to step on the gas and "getter done!"