Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security

As an emergency responder PIO this was great info for future natural disasters best detail on how response unfolded. And how it’s easy to get in our own way

Seems to do a real good job. As an anything like this, it takes a lot of people a lot of time to mess up something this bad. Will be better analyzed by "experts" several years from now, especially after some of the repairs/remediation have been tested with say a "minor" hurricane. I'm not an expert or even close, but everybody has known people that went down there to help that couldn't do anything because of whatever (basically disorganization/dysfuntion) and just came home (some had some sucess particularly other La & Miss). Have had the opportunity to work with Corps Of Engineer on other things and like any large governmental agency some things work real well but a lot doesn't, most of which seems to be their own bureaucacy. Of course they are not completely at fault, but they, the city & the state are probably all guilty. Particularly liked the explanation/idea that the Feds and/or the Military wanted to take control. Pretty sure they are still trying to do this, for a lot of different reasons, but one is to just get more power/money (and for some weak/poor areas, they may be right). One of the bigger issues is what should we the people and government really do/spend on these areas to include much of Florida, in regards to saving/protecting something that is almost impossible to protect, is very very expensive to protect, and/or actually wrong to protect (e.g. Everglades, Mississippi River over engineering). Some of these things are owned by very rich people/corporations. If I owned property built in a Hurricane prone area, I would like the government to save me/my money too. I'll never forget walking down the road in Vietnam and seeing an Esso and station sign, and I thought to myself, what am I really here for. Of course, since then I've realized it isn't that simple, but some of it is.

I say this because the book was very difficult to put down, certainly surprising because it is reporting on a recent event with known results. Certainly, the book is not a dry recitation of events.I will say this right off - some of my opinions about who was at fault from the Federal response changed as a result of reading the book. I am less inclined to blame the Bush White house (and I am no fan of Bush Administration). However, it is also plainly obvious that the response failed on Federal, State and local levels - primarily because of bureaucracy. This is not to say that some things went well - New Orleans was 80% evacuated for example when the storm hit.The authors have also listed many of their references both in the book and on their website. Two of the big ones are readily accessible on the Internet - the Bipartisan report and the White house report. Anyone may review those documents who care to. The link is:[...]

This is a well written tale of how government can get out of touch with reality.I was completely flabbergasted by the obsession for irrelevant detail Mathew Broderick demanded in the Homeland Security Operations Center. I thought the Marines worked from the idea of the 70% Solution. On the battlefield or in a Disaster you are never going to have the full picture. You just have to go to war with the 70% you do know. This is well covered in "Corps Business: The 30 Management Principles of the U.S. Marines" by David H. Freedman.The hero of the book for me was Craig Fugate the man who rose from being a firefighter and paramedic to become Florida's Emergency Manager. It is a tragedy for you Americans that he did not take the post of head of FEMA.At the end of the day the message you get from this book is you are on your own. You might want to dust off your copies of Mel Tappan "On Survival" after you read this.

It's been awhile since I read this book, but it is loaded with information I would not want to have missed. It discusses much of what happened before the disaster, and what could have been done differently to avoid such a catastrophe as this. It evaluates all aspects of teamwork, what went wrong and who must be held accountable where preventatives did not happen as they should have. Great book !!! I would highly recommend !

Amazing recounting of a sad tale of, frankly, stupidity, negligence, and incompetence on the part of the feds. I hope I'm never in a situation where I have to depend on FEMA.

Disaster in the lack of response to a disaster.Shameful.

I had a tough time putting this book down. The detail included was outstanding. The authors told the real story, no matter who might be offended. It was a true eye opener to see how ineffective, and inefficient, the government really is. I certainly hope that lessons were learned, and applied to future disasters. Would highly recommend this book if you want the whole picture.