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What we've learned (and not learned)from Hurricane Katrina

Thinking about the happenings before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina, there are many things that could have been changed. What expression do we use in many other situations? "Hind site is always better than foresight."
With all of the news releases and commentaries about the hurricane, different people made different decisions about their lives being at stake. Some decisions were made hastily and some not, some decisions were considered right and some were considered wrong. In the past, there have been many times when New Orleans was in the path of some pretty fierce storms. Some of those storms continued to grow strong and hit the coast affecting New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana. Others hurricanes died down or turned away from the Louisiana coast resulting in New Orleans not being affected other than by slight wind and/or rain.

Many people want to blame the government for not doing their job. I agree, there could have been things done differently and more hastily as things progressed. But,when dealing with all of the population of New Orleans and surrounding areas, employees and their families, liabilities, and many other issues, it is not so easy to make a decision that will please and help everyone.
The residence of New Orleans and the surrounding areas need to also take responsibility for themselves and responsibility of their decisions not only for themselves but also their families.
After the fact we all looked back and thought of things that could have been done or things that took place that should have never taken place. It is unfortunate that so many lives were lost, unfortunate that so many lives were changed suddenly and for some will be a permanent change, however, we must move forward. We can't change the events that actually happened before, during and after Hurricane Katrina, however, we can learn from these events and plan for any future disaster. Even though much planning started immediately after Hurricane Katrina, many people are not even aware of it.
In the area I live in, which is approximately 3 hours North of New Orleans, we were not affected by Hurricane Katrina at all. It was the aftermath that affected us. I am a health care worker and at the time was in supervisory position. I now look back on some of the decisions I made and that my superiors made and think of ways we could have possibly improved the way we handled some of the situations. Our goal at the time was to provide the best possible care for each patient both local and those coming in New Orleans and other parts of the state. We did also care for other issues and we were able to help with those issues at least on a temporary basis.
Within 2 or 3 weeks after the hurricane we met with people who worked in different capacities in the state to improve problem solving. No matter how much we plan and make arrangements for the next possible disaster, at that time we will probably find other ways of improving our actions. There is one more solution we can turn to and it is to prayer in making the right decisions.

Learn more about this author, Miss D Charnia.
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