If you click on the “Editorial” link at Chron.com, you’ll see that there are only op-ed columns today. That got my curiosity up, so I sent someone to fetch the paper and I turned to the Outlook section. In place of two editorials and some letters to the editor, the second page today is filled with the “Top 10 lessons we’ve learned from Hurricane Katrina: The disaster that befell New Orleans and the adjacent Gulf Coast teaches us that preparation, early evacuation and rapid response after passage of a storm are the keys to saving lives and minimizing the human damage. One day Katrina’s successor will bear down on the upper Texas coast. These are the signposts that can guide our community to safety.”
I can’t find a link, so I’ll reproduce the editorial board’s Top Ten. After each entry the board adds some thoughts. That’s way too much typing for me to do on a Sunday morning (if someone can dig up a link, I’d be most grateful), but if you want to know what the editorial board said about a specific topic, let me know in the forum and I’ll add it there. Here we go:
1. As Mayor Bill White noted, local leaders must presume the worst case scenario.
2. Evacuation orders must be issued early and firmly for threatened areas.
3. Emergency shelters must have auxiliary power and be adequately stocked with water and imperishable food to provide for several days of sustenance in case outside assistance is delayed or can’t get through.
4. Houston’s prompt and organized relief effort owed much to intergovernmental cooperation, particularly between the city, led by Mayor White, and Harris County, led by County Judge Robert Eckels.
5. Disaster response planners and managers should give high priority to the needs and desires of local residents.
6. Katrina reminded Americans of the pockets of grinding poverty in every U.S. metropolis.
7. A Houston-Harris County task force should immediately study and then implement measures to bolster defenses against flooding.
8. Thanks to the members of the Texas Medical Center, other area hospitals, the Harris County Hospital District and the city of Houston Health Department, this region can provide medical care on a massive scale.
9. Having an adequately funded education system is essential.
10. President Bush showed bold and reassuring leadership in his speech Thursday night from New Orleans.
As you might imagine, the editorial board members used several of these lessons-learned to push their favorite pet causes such as poverty, clean air, public libraries and parks, more funding for schools and “scenic enhancements.”
