Episode-4- The Missed Lessons from Hurricane Katrina
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We heard an awful lot of blame handed to an awful lot of people over the disaster after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. That happened on August 29th, 2005, almost three years ago. Over the years we have heard a lot about the “lessons learned” as in how the government can do a better job in the future and a bit on at least people being more responsive to evacuation orders.
That said I think many of the real lessons of Katrina and other disasters have yet to be learned by the average person, here are the things I think we should all take away from and take to heart about the reality that Katrina exposed in America.
Chris,
I’ll say upfront that you and I might disagree on many things if we were to sit down and chat (I’m very much a socialist in my political leaning); but I will admit that your intent with the podcast is excellent and applicable to all (regardless of political leaning). I live in Canada and am looking to take my downtown city home off the grid (or at least reduce my exposure to it), supplement my food by growing my own and being more self-sufficient. I applaud you for putting together the podcast and the way you’ve approached the topic. In Canada, the right to bear arms isn’t a right (I agree with that (hey, I noted I’m a socialist in my leaning) and I believe shouldn’t. That said, learning to defend and protect what one has in dire times is important and I am competent (if not formally trained) in defending my family and home. One topic that I think you might want to cover though is (and your Katrina podcast (which I just listened to, strikes home on this one) is how to both deal with first aid and also how to sterilize water in a non-electrical, cheap, on-hand items for most home users.
Beyond that, I enjoy the podcast and hope you keep them up.
I suffered through the Houston “evacuation” for Rita with my wife and two children (then, 3 and 6mo). That was definitely the longest trip I’ve ever made to San Antonio. It was a scorcher that day and we were moving about 10 feet every 5 minutes for quite a while. When we finally made it to Katy, we had been in the truck for about 2-3 hours. I decided to pull off and raid Walmart.
We snagged a couple of coolers, cold drinks, a case of water, snacks, 3 of the last bags of ice. I also managed to get a very key piece of survival gear that day. THE LAST ROAD MAP OF TEXAS!! No kidding. It was the last one on the shelf and MY GOD am I happy I thought about it. We ended up taking super small highways and county roads the rest of the way.
Took 18 hours to get to San Antonio. How crazy is that?
And go figure that Rita was a nothing storm. People were just so scared after Katrina that they weren’t taking any chances.
The Houston evacuation did wake up the Texas Government to the need for an evacuation plan. Until then, there wasn’t one in place to reflect the current population. While I doubt their new “plan” will make it run smoothly, at least it’s a step in the right direction.