Reply #14: ***And still more about the WH Katrina Report from TIME MAGAZINE:

[Nothing Without Hope]

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1167076,00.html
Web Exclusive| Nation

Speed Read: The White House Katrina Report

The Bush Administration prefers to look forward, not backward. But its focus on expanding the federal role in future disaster relief may be easier said than done
By AMANDA RIPLEY/WASHINGTON
Posted Thursday, Feb. 23, 2006

(snip)

...The report finds "significant flaws" in the National Response Plan, a framework for handling disasters that the Department of Homeland Security unveiled at the beginning of last year. The report calls for a 90-day review of the plan and says it should be changed to anticipate that the feds may need to temporarily assume some state and local responsibilities.

It also urges the federal government to be prepared to carry out a mass evacuation if state and local officials can’t do so. That means making sure states and locals have (and rehearse) good plans — which must include strategies for dealing with the sick and elderly, whose particular plight after Katrina was one of the most troubling aspects of the relief operations. The report suggests that locals should not get federal disaster money if they have not completed such plans in advance.

(snip)

...The report also recommends that the Defense Department do more, sooner after a big disaster, helping to expedite search and rescue operations, as well as evacuations and the delivery of supplies. But this is a not exactly a new idea. The same recommendation came out after the government’s dismal response to Hurricane Andrew in 1992. For political, legal and historical reasons, this is much easier said than done.

The report urges federal agencies to make a slew of changes before June 1, which is ambitious. In the meantime, stay tuned for the Senate to issue its own Katrina report sometime in the next several weeks.