Response to Gustav showed everyone learned a lesson

Response to Gustav showed everyone learned a lesson

The Bush administration, the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans demonstrated this week that they learned from their mistakes of three years ago, when haphazard preparations for and an inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina proved disastrous.

It helped, of course, that Hurricane Gustav lost some of its punch over the Gulf of Mexico before striking land with winds of about 110 mph. The storm apparently caused more damage to Cuba, where winds were about 30 mph stronger.

Still, Gustav was a force to be reckoned with. It claimed 16 lives (about 1 percent of Katrina’s toll) and caused billions of dollars in direct damage and lost productivity. The storm is lingering on the mainland, still producing heavy rains and some flooding and scattered tornadoes.

But the evacuation of coastal areas was handled with efficiency, no sense of panic and little resistance from a populace that remembered how bad a storm can be. There were scattered complaints of crowded conditions and insufficient sanitary facilities at some shelters, but those were being addressed even as some residents left for home.

Literally powerless

The biggest challenge facing the area now is the restoring of electrical service, which appears to be an enormous task. It will involve thousands of workers who are being sent to Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas from virtually every part of the country. A lack of electricity is not only an inconvenience for individuals returning to their homes, it hampers restoration of water and sewer services and the pumping of gasoline at service stations. It will also keep the area’s oil and natural gas producers from getting back to supplying the rest of the nation with energy.

While the response to Gustav will be counted as a success story, it may turn out to be only a small part of the story this storm season.

Even as Gustav lingers, there are at least three other storms brewing, Hanna, Ike and Josephine — and the historic peak of the season is still a week away.

The need for relief efforts that these storms create wasn’t lost on the Republicans or the Democrats this week, both of whom turned campaign events into fund-raisers for storm victims.

There’s still plenty of time and reason for every American to pitch in. For those who don’t have a specific social or church agency they use to funnel aid to storm victims, making a donation is as easy as contacting you local chapter of the American Red Cross. The Red Cross is helping people on the ground now, and it is already making plans and stocking up so that it is ready when the next storm hits.