The trouble with emergencies is," she said, "that I always put on my finest underwear and then nothing happens.
You need to plan the way a fire department plans: it cannot anticipate where the next fire will be, so it has to shape an energetic and efficient team that is capable of responding to the unanticipated as well as to any ordinary event.
How fast a company can respond in an emergency is a measure of its corporate reflexes.
Well, I'm not excusing the fact that planning and preparedness was not where it should be. We've known for 20 years about this hurricane, this possibility of this kind of hurricane.
If I wasn't prepared knowing every year there is a huge chance of a fire that will require me to evacuate my property, then I'm an ignoramus. If people at this point don't see that terrorism is a reality, and don't take steps to prepare themselves a little more than they were the day before, then they are also an irresponsible ignoramus.
I think that men should wear shoes that if there's an emergency, they're gonna be able to help.
I think we're in good shape, but the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina is in some small way mitigated by the fact that we now have more people talking about it, thinking about it and working on it, so that we will be more vigilant and ready.
[L]eave nothing to the uncertainty of procuring a warlike apparatus at the moment of public danger.
What is needed by him who would succeed in the highest degree possible is careful planning. He is to accumulate reserved power, that he may be equal to all emergencies.
Severe weather can come at any time, and millions of people are impacted by storms each year. Truly, the best defense against severe weather is for families to create an emergency plan, practice that plan, and always stay alert and ready.
I'm good in an emergency.
There are several very good websites which describe the details of preparedness planning for citizens.
The preparations are what they are. We're here. The storm is coming. We are as best prepared as we can be as the eye of the storm approaches.
The other big lesson from Katrina is that it pays to be prepared. But it's also very difficult to stay prepared because the longer you go between events the more you'll see complacency.
