Perhaps the 18th-century poet, Robert Burns, had it right when he wrote: "The best laid plans o'mice an' men/Gang aft a-gley." Or as we would say today: "gone astray." The national imbroglio as to who should assume the burden for the maddeningly slow response to hurricane Katrina will probably not subside for some time. I have four years experience in developing an emergency plan; perhaps it is not inappropriate to inject what I have learned about emergency planning:

I live in a small community in south-central New Mexico with a county population of 13,000. The county seat in which I reside, Socorro, contains 9,000 people — or the majority of the citizens in the county. Twenty years ago there was an attempt to develop an emergency plan for the county — but it never really saw the light of day. However, when I moved to this region four years ago, I joined with several others in a county Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) with the intention of creating a working plan.

Progress has been agonizingly slow and we are still at it. Like the planners in New Orleans whose school buses and emergency communications were snuffed out by flooding that occurred in the aftermath of Katrina, we too, were caught flatfooted — by a hail storm last October, which hurled hail stones the size of tennis balls down upon us, destroying thousands of cars and the roofs of homes throughout the town. Yes, there had been an alert by the NOAA weather alert radio, but no one was monitoring it! Emergency planning is, at best, demanding and difficult. As we in Socorro begin our fifth year we are still a ways from coming up with a workable plan. But we are persevering — nonetheless. In light of what we have learned, here is what can be said about Katrina:

Putting together a plan that will work effectively in an emergency such as Katrina is a huge task. Nationally, as fingers point in all directions, it is becoming clear that there is more than enough blame to go around. It is already evident that FEMA must be adequately funded and staffed with experienced professionals and this organization must play a commanding role in making sure that workable plans are developed at all levels — federal, state and local — with all deliberate speed.

Anything less will simply mean another catastrophic event — with again huge losses in lives, property and rebuilding costs, which could again be in the hundreds of billions of dollars. As Americans we deserve better — we must act.

Communications firms assist in Katrina's aftermath

Eagle Broadband is providing its SatMAX non-line-of-sight, satellite communications technology at no cost to the U.S. Army enabling satellite-based voice and data communications to facilitate rescue, relief and recovery efforts for victims of hurricane Katrina.

The company has delivered its suitcase-sized, portable SatMAX technology that lets disaster response teams establish and maintain vital, Iridium satellite-based voice and data communications in any non-line-of-sight environment within buildings, command centers and other locations where outdoor use is not possible. The company has also offered to send SatMAX units to other federal, state and local civilian government and military agencies. The portable SatMAX can be easily transported and deployed in minutes. It can operate either on batteries or standard AC power so that users with existing Iridium handsets can make secure or unsecured calls from virtually any location. Another firm engaged in largesse is WPCS International Inc. They are dispatching a team of field engineers to Louisiana to assist a major wireless carrier in rebuilding their wireless network that was damaged by hurricane Katrina. Their engineers will be deployed throughout the damaged geographic region to assist in restoring communication between the thousands of displaced individuals as quickly as possible.

In addition, Last Mile Connections (LMC), a carrier-neutral colocation and online bandwidth exchange provider, has announced that it will offer up to three months of free power and space within six of its colocation sites to non-profit and government agencies involved in Hurricane Katrina's relief efforts and also to Gulf Coast businesses that were devastated by the hurricane.

This backup will help re-establish service for the many families now trying to find and reconnect with their loved ones.

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