Katrina Response
September 3rd, 2005 by DadSome dude: Dad decided to join the blog world. You’re right, the response to Katrina pretty much seems to suck. Looking at the news coverage from here in Tokyo, the Gulf Coast looks kind of like Bangladesh after a cyclone. Seems nobody was prepared for the scope of the damage. On the other hand, it was probably not really possible to fully prepare. Apparantly FEMA in the beginning was saying they had it under control and didn’t need any outside assistance — yeah right. I’ve been working with my colleagues in the USG to try to get FEMA to tell us if they’re willing to accept an offer of help from the Japanese Self Defense Forces (they have international disaster relief teams, medical teams, reconstruction teams, etc). It’s frustrating because we can’t get an answer yet. Most likelly partially just lack of organization, but probably partly an ego probem as well. Given the number of people and the scope of the problem, I would think we should welcome help from anybody. Anyway, it’s nice to know other countries are offering to help.
