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Ron Jackson's Perspective
The Sunday Journal -
Think
Kankakee, Illinois
September 25, 2005
Katrina taught us
lessons for
oncoming Hurricane Rita |
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What a difference a
day makes or a name makes, as in hurricane Rita, the second Category
5 hurricane to hit the Gulf Coast in less than a month and only the
third known storm of such fierce velocity to hit the U.S. mainland.
Remember when diversity used to be the political and cultural
word of the day? Everybody talked diversity. Businesses and
governments have diversity experts. Well, nature has given us
something new to focus on. Now it seems the current buzzword or
phrase is disaster plan. Every municipality in the country has
probably reviewed or reworked its disaster plan this month. In the
next round of state elections, we can probably expect politicians to
have disaster plans on their agendas.
Hurricane Rita was expected to hit the Texas coastal city
Galveston at 175 mph. The Texas residents wasted no time heeding
the evacuation warnings. Multiple disaster plans went into effect.
An estimated 1.3 million residents of Corpus Christi, Galveston and
Houston, Texas, were under mandatory evacuation 72 hours before Rita
was to hit.
The governor of Texas, Rick Perry, immediately ordered his
state's National Guard to be in position to thwart any uprising
violence. The federal government had food and other emergency
relief supplies standing by after Rita made her force known.
President Bush was well aware of Hurricane Rita and fortunately was
not on vacation at the time.
Even the Queen City New Orleans, which was trying to lift its
head toward recovery from Katrina, had to duck and take cover again
in case Rita took a right turn.
In a very short notice, a great many lessons had been learned.
At the great expense of the people and cities that Hurricane Katrina
devastated, everyone from common citizens to all political leaders
at any level learned something. We heard none of the
government bickering. The poor and elderly were given a priority.
The sick and infirmed were given special attention. Unlike the
hundreds of school buses we saw sitting in water in New Orleans,
countless numbers of Texas school buses could be seen hauling people
to safer grounds.
There even seemed to be a lack of panic on the parts of those
in charge. More emphasis was placed on the safety of people than on
the status of certain people. All seemed to be taking charge
instead of claiming to be in charge.
Much was learned in such a short time between hurricanes
Katrina and Rita. But through all of this, George Bush will learn
he still can't win. He will most likely be accused of giving
this storm a more fruitful priority because it's his home state and
not because he was capable of learning from the Katrina fiasco.
During the anticipatory phase before Rita was to land, there
remained the never-ending compassion of the American people who were
standing by again to do whatever it takes, again.
Mother Nature is an indisputable force, but the one thing we
will learn from these back-to-back disasters is that the American
people will take care of America. |
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