Florida's disaster planning and response fall short

There is no other state in the union with more experience with devastating hurricanes than Florida. In addition, the lessons of weak preparations for Katrina, and an even more feeble response, are still fresh in people’s minds. On top of that, Governor Jeb Bush has spent weeks crusading against an expanded federal role in disaster response. On 19 October Bush testified before a U.S. House committee in opposition to an expanded federal role in disaster preparation and response, contending that states are best able to handle storm response because they are closer to the people and know their own communities. With Wilma looming over the horizon, Bush’s notion of state responsibility was put to the test. It has not worked out quite as Governor Bush said it would.

Bush has now acknowledged Florida’s failure properly to respond to Wilma. “I’ve raised the bar probably, maybe, too high, I don’t know,” Bush said Tuesday. “We’re going to find out.” The bar was raised high indeed, as the stated goal of the Florida government, virtually unprecedented in U.S. disasters, was to speed relief supplies to people within twenty-four hours of Wilma’s landfall. Officials now say that schedule was wildly optimistic and probably contributed to a number of other problems in getting assistance to long, angry lines of people.