OF2-06/11/08 7:25 AM
TRYING TO AVOID MISTAKES WHEN DISASTER STRIKES.
The Osgood File. I'm Charles Osgood on the CBS Radio Network.
Murphy's Law states that if anything bad can happen, it will happen. This is not a law of Congress or a regulation issued by some federal agency. It's simply a fact of life, based on human experience.
No matter how well planners plan, when there's a sudden disaster, it never happens quite the way anyone thought it would. And people don't all react as planned, either. The human element is the hardest thing to plan for.
Today, an unprecedented National Consensus Panel of national, state and local government --- and non-governmental organizations, including minority activist groups --- is coming out with a blueprint for avoiding such miscalculations as were revealed when New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Katrina.
In the event of another disaster, natural or manmade --- whether it's a hurricane, an earthquake, a tidal wave, a pandemic or a terrorist attack --- there are lessons to be learned from what happened in New Orleans after Katrina. Nothing went the way it was supposed to. And, as so often happens, the most disadvantaged people there bore the brunt of it.
SOT - Dennis Andrulis of Drexel University
"If I am poor and I don't have a car and you say 'Drive out of the city' --- then I am lost."
Dennis Andrulis of Drexel University's Center for Health Equality is one of the organizers of the panel.
SOT - Dennis Andrulis
"We brought together people who never sit at the table --- strange bedfellows."
In his job at Drexel, Andrulis works on the special health care inequities suffered by immigrants and poor --- the same sort of people hardest hit when a disaster strikes. He says the advance planning for emergency preparedness has to include these racially and ethnically diverse communities.
SOT - Dennis Andrulis
"...Not as passive receptors of information, but as a two-way street to make sure these people are well informed."
The Osgood File. Transcripts, podcasts and Mp3s of these broadcasts can be found at theosgoodfile.com. I'm Charles Osgood on the CBS Radio Network.
The Osgood File. June 11th, 2008. |
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