Cheryl Morris - Weblogs

Two bad hurricanes within a month. Coastal Louisiana decimated from east to west. It will be years, if ever, before most of the affected families recover - financially and emotionally. I can understand their strong urge to rebuild where they lived, though I personally would be inclined to take my oars inland (to face tornados […]

Two items have been reported. One is the “unbelievable” gaffe made by former First Lady, Barbara Bush, during a tour of the Houston Astrodome. What she said has been reported by several major newspapers, for example, the New York Times:
“And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway,” she […]

The well-defined Incident Command System (ICS) was not required for a natural disaster, though it is required by federal law for a HAZMAT incident. The failure of management, commented upon by Jim MacDonald on Making Light, may well have been exacerbated by FEMA not using Command/Control, but a Management style of operation.
I […]

One risk management firm put the cost at 100 billion. I don’t know what they are counting - just a look at the satellite maps of New Orleans and the amount of damage to businesses, individuals, and infrastructure - tells me that that is too low, far too low. I fear the multiplication factor is […]

Flood cleanup is heartbreaking. It is an area where I, sadly, have some experience (limited). Twice I sat on the phones for a cleaning company during floods in my community (in Canada). I had experience and training and carried an Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) card, though I was never field-enabled. I […]

Kanye veered from his script on the fundraiser for flood victims and let loose!
I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, “They’re looting.” You see a white family, it says, “They’re looking for food.” And, you know, it’s been five days [waiting for federal help] […]

Where has Chertoff been?
“That ‘perfect storm’ of a combination of catastrophes exceeded the foresight of the planners, and maybe anybody’s foresight,” Chertoff said.
He called the disaster “breathtaking in its surprise.”
There is NO excuse for such a statement, as quoted by CNN. This was a well-known problem for Florida. I’d heard about it….

First, I think the mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, is a hero. He tried to get people out of harm’s way. In the best of times with everyone *really* understanding what could happen, there still would have been people remaining in the city. Unless you have lived in a rural area where you […]

I am hoping that fellow bloggers will ferret out the details of the Sidney Blumenthal article that appeared in Salon, “No one can say they didn’t see it coming“. We need to explore the charges made within this article — take a look at the lead in:
In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking […]