Posted on 09/02/2005 1:45:44 PM PDT by InspiredPath1
PUNTA GORDA, Fla. --Betty Babitzke and her husband were so frustrated after Hurricane Andrew slammed into Florida in 1992 that they pulled out a map and started looking for a safer part of the state in which to spend their retirement. They settled on Punta Gorda.
Then, two weeks ago, came Hurricane Charley, second only to Andrew on the list of Florida's most destructive hurricanes.
That is because life after Charley is much better than life after Andrew.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency and state and local authorities are being praised for their response to Charley, something that did not happen after Andrew.
"After Andrew, it was chaotic, absolutely chaotic," Babitzke said, describing the lack of services and free-for-all created by intersections with missing signs and signals. "Cleanup was extremely slow. There's no comparison. This response team, they have it together. They're at least three days ahead. It's fabulous."
It is a far cry from what Kate Hale saw 12 years ago. Hale, who was the Dade County emergency management director when Andrew hit, asked in exasperation in the storm's aftermath: "Where in the hell is the cavalry?"
This time, "they've had food, water, people, equipment and communications in almost immediately. We were waiting days for that and sometimes longer," said Hale, now president and chief executive of the South Florida Mental Health Association. "This one's gone off the way you would want to see things happen."
It took four days for FEMA to get its first people into South Florida after Andrew. In the same time after Charley, disaster workers had finished search-and-rescue operations and were focused on getting residents necessities like food and water.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
It will always take four days to respond to anything of this magnitude. Having rescuers shot at will not improve things.
I have a sneaking suspicion that was because Clinton wasn't president when Andrew hit.
But, but, but, but... aren't there white people in south Florida?
Reasonable - and realistic - people don't wait for, or expect, the federal government to save them. It's a bureaucracy; by definition, it is slow, cumbersome, inefficient and corrupt. It matters not who is in power; the faces my change, but the playbook stays the same.
FEMA=Suits with a assured paycheck, did you expect them to do something?
I responded to Andrew with the EPA and we could not get in for three days and it was chaos for two more assigning tasks and triaging sites to investigate. And sucked to be there let me tell you. Everyone was armed though and signs made it clear what would happen. Now there's a difference.
It took 4 days for FEMA to get into South Florida after Hurricane Andrew.
This article puts to bed the lie being perpetrated by the race baiters in the press today that the New Orleans victims weren't being helped in a timely manner because they are black.
You might want to make sure this makes your archive list.
I think that the improvement of the response after Charlie has a lot to do with the state of FLorida, having lived through Andrew, improving their plans. That's the problem here too. This is the first REAL test of Louisiana's hurricane plans and obviously, they did not do well.
Perhaps FEMA was better able to respond after Andrew because the STATE was better able to respond
Damn, i feel like a fool. I meant only to compare the media's reaction then to now. Sorry.
I think there is also a difference when state and local government recognize in advance what realities may occur. That was true with Jeb Bush in Florida when 4 hurricanes trashed the state just last year. This was also true this week with Haley Barbour in Mississippi.
I don't think it was true in Louisiana.
Ping!
Miami was much worse then NO and I remember at Homestead AFB the military looted the BX and Shoppette because it took 30 days for help from the outside to arrive.
There was a very negative media reaction against Bush I at the time, and it apparently contributed to Bush losing the election.
Interesting thing is that I've seen multiple posts from different people who believed Clinton was president during Andrew.
"Amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics."
It takes a certain amount of time to mobilize and move thousands of personnel, move thousands of military vehicles and move tens of thousands of tons of supplies from Point A to Point B.
Never ceases to amaze me the ability of people to mis-remember stuff when they really want to.
If Clinton was pounded after Andrew, then I'll eat my computer monitor. George HW Bush was President during Hurricane Andrew (August 1992).
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