November 6, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
Are the victims of the California wildfires benefiting from the lessons America learned in its botched response to Hurricane Katrina?
Peter Apps, who writes a blog on AlertNet, a Web site on humanitarian causes and disaster relief, says the answer is yes.
“Inevitably, comparisons are being made to the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans — and so far they’re mostly favorable,” he writes. “Many newspapers contrast conditions in San Diego’s main stadium, where evacuees can speak to counselors or even get a massage, with the apocalyptic scenes in the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, where bathrooms overflowed and dead bodies were left outside.”
Charities are also applying what they learned from Katrina. For example, the American Red Cross, which has raised $20-million to help people made homeless by the fires, is using the crisis to test partnerships it set up in the wake of the Gulf Coast hurricane, reports The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Mr. Apps does point out that the West Coast’s wealth may play a factor in the better response to disaster. “Some stories simply point out that California’s richer population are more resilient and the state better equipped,” he wries.
What do you think? Have government officials and charities learned lessons from Katrina? What can they still do better when responding to an emergency? Click on the comments link below this post to share your thoughts.
