Quote:
Originally posted by Sexual Harassment Panda
I've been wondering about this. I could imagine you could contract to a consulting firm for an evacuation plan, and I even imagine it happens, but when the shit hits the fan, in the specific case of running an evacuation, how is business going to outperform the government? Are you going to pay more attention to a WalMart greeter waving a flashlight than a state trooper?
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Dunno, but it's clear that Wal-Mart had more of its shit put together than anyone on the government level getting ready for Katrina.
Obviously there's a lot of self-interest there, and that may very well be why they're so good at it. They know what stuff people need, and they know how to react quickly to get people what they need if for some reason there's a run on the store. It's what they do, disaster or no disaster, and they're very, very good at it. That it was their customer base that was the most impacted by the storm probably went a long way towards their decision to give over 20 million in help.
The thing is, getting stuff from point A to point B quickly is only one part of disaster recovery. It's an important part, but certainly the medical personnel (and don't get me started on the physician that FEMA kicked out of the New Orleans airport
while he was trying to recussitate someone because he wasn't on the approved list of credentialed physicians), search and rescue, housing, etc. need to be coordinated and considered, and I'm not sure that a private company or foundation can/should accomplish that.
