I had planned to blog today on my tour of duty with the military in response to Hurricane Katrina two years ago. Instead, WKYC.com asked me to write my thoughts for them and add some of my digital photos. Read here if you like.
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3 comments:
Thank you for sharing your story and your pictures, Eric. It still baffles me that there was such chaos and disorganization during this disaster, but it heartens me to read your story.
The communications situation was unbelievable. I read several stories about the large number of amateur radio operators that responded to provide communications to relief agencies, shelters and hospitals when the public infrastructure failed (cell phones, police-fire systems etc.) Eric, will the next "event" be handled any better in your opinion?
I'd like to believe the commo problems will be fixed, but I doubt it.
For what it's worth, this was a 100-year storm .. as far as the damage. So no one could expect really expect it to run like a political convention. Still, I couldn't believe the lack of coordination, lack of effective planning, and general unwillingness by some groups to either step up and lead or to agree to partner together.
I really think that when the storm damage is this bad, the military needs to have a more active roll in leading the recovery response. It's one of the operations that the military does quite well as evidence by our deployments to other catastrophes.
Still, I'll never forget the experience and I invite anyone to make the trip and see for yourself the damage from mother nature and the power of God to heal.
Eric
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