Terrorism strategy vs Disaster Recovery

With Hurricane Ernesto bearing down on the U.S. it is a good time to look at our level of preparation.

We have focused so hard on terrorism we have forgotten that more peoples’ lives are adversely affected by mother nature than Al Qaida – Hurricane Katrina killed over 1,500 people, about half the number of people who died on 9 11 and substantially more than those killed in the London and Madrid subway bombings.

A major earthquake in L.A. or San Francisco would kill many more. The Christmas Tsunami killed over 250,000 in Asia less than two years ago. Are we prepared?

I don’t think so. In Houston we live downwind of a nuclear power plant, yet I have not heard of any emergency plan if there is an accident. But I have heard of people with zero terrorism expertise (but good political connections) being put on bioterror committees and the like. How that makes us safer is beyond me.

We need to be as focused on disaster relief from natural disasters as we do from potential terrorism. FEMA should be removed from Homeland Security for that reason since HS focus is on prevention and FEMA’s is on recovery efforts –totally the opposite focus of each other.