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New Orleans Versus San Diego

Sounds rather like a forthcoming football game, doesn’t it? Interestingly, this little subtext drama gets played out in the sports venue of each city.

(Sigh) I haven’t even attempted to cover the fires in SouCal. I’m simply not equipped for the task. So I’ve not said much if anything at all about the goings on, there. (I will point out Dale Franks [1] as being among the better sources I’ve seen for first hand info, given he’s there in the middle of that mess… and wish him luck)

There is one story, however, that I will comment on… which is, is a comparison [2] between what’s going on at Qualcom Stadium, and what happened in New Orleans, at the Dome a few years ago while Katrina was raging outside.

Some have suggested that the Federal government is better equipped to handle things now, given the way they got spanked over Katrina. I submit, rather, that

I certainly have my differences with the government’s in California, and generally speaking view SouCal politics as akin to the Kremlin at times. But disaster preparedness is largely a state and local operation. The success or failure of such operations, depends entirely on the competency and preparedness of those state and local governments.

I believe that to be the difference between these two cases.

Addendum:

Oops. I neglected to tie in DavidL’s earlier thoughts [3] on this. It’s what I get for posting before getting my coffee in me.

I should also have mentioned that the fault lies not only with the local government, but the local culture, which is a point I’ve made when we were discussing Katrina.