So Louisianna did have a Plan? The Hurricane Pam exercise. I found this link from Andy Sullivan.
The exercise "was a week-long simulation (not a tabletop exercise) with a difference: while response to the fictional Hurricane Pam, a slow-moving category three storm making steady progress up the Mississippi and landing just to the west of New Orleans, was the designated activity, the purpose of the exercise was to create a series of plans and recommendations which would be presented to the State of Louisiana and adopted as the official Hurricane Response Plan."
Sounds good to me…
And here is where it gets interesting…
"There was a certain amount of contention, a few turf wars, some loud talk. None if it consequential, in the end, because of the single greatest emollient: FEMA. The Federal Emergency Management Agency promised the moon and the stars. They promised to have 1,000,000 bottles of water per day coming into affected areas within 48 hours. They promised massive prestaging with water, ice, medical supplies and generators. Anything that was needed, they would have either in place as the storm hit or ready to move in immediately after. All it would take is a phone call from local officials to the state, who would then call FEMA, and it would be done."
Ah yes… FEMA. You can blame City government, the Governer and it still comes back to FEMA and the Feds…
Here’s more… "The problem is FEMA, and by extension the Department of Homeland Security, which gobbled FEMA up in 2003. FEMA promised more than they could deliver. They cut off deeper, perhaps more meaningful discussion and planning by handing out empty promises. The plans that were made — which were not given any sort of stamp of authority — were never distributed or otherwise made available to those who most needed stable guidance; they vanished into the maw of FEMA and LOSHEP (probably when Col. Brown (not the idiot Michael Brown) was removed from his command due to financial "irregularities" — the project was tainted after that). Adoption of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) would have made most of the plans moot anyway — FEMA’s adherence to the untried NIMS is a primary reason for the chaos and ineptitude surrounding their relief efforts."
Bloody FEMA.
