From Denny: It's no surprise that most of my fellow Americans believe our government is still not ready to properly handle a big disaster. Pushing the nasty politics aside that the Republicans dished out onto the people of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, the largest American disaster ever, that definitely complicated matters - our government still suffers a lack of quality coordination and fast response times.
The truth is that Bush and Cheney had dismantled key components of FEMA and other agencies, preventing them from reacting in a timely fashion and on a large enough scale. President Obama has had so many fires on so many fronts because of how the Republicans have crippled our government from being able to operate that Obama's attention has yet to rest upon restoring key elements of emergency response for inside America.
It's been five years since Hurricane Katrina struck on 29 August 2005 and still this great country has yet to get its act together to handle severe emergencies. America is the only nation on this earth that has the most violent weather. With global warming that weather severity has increased. We are foolish not to address our infrastructure vulnerabilities and government responses.
And it looks like a lot of America agrees that America still isn't ready - even after five years and now an oil spill disaster. This oil spill just highlighted how much our government agencies have to learn and how much Congress needs to get busy reining in and penalizing Big Business for running such shoddy operations that risk the economy and the safety of the American people.
The nonpartisan Pew Research Center poll released today had these results where they surveyed equal numbers of Democrats, Republicans and Independents:
* 57 percent say the country has not improved its disaster preparations
* 38 percent said the country is more ready than it was.
* 69 percent think progress has been made rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf (As a Louisiana blogger I can tell you that we have made great strides).
* People in the South - which includes Gulf Coast states - feel most strongly about it, with 75 percent saying progress has been made. In other regions, a combined 66 percent see progress.
* Only 63 percent of Democrats were convinced than Republicans and Independents, saying reconstruction has moved ahead.
* Pew conducted the poll from Aug. 19-22, interviewing 1,003 randomly chosen adults by telephone, including those on landlines and cell phones. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Poll: 57% Say U.S. Still Not Ready for Disasters
Five Years after Katrina, Just 38% of Respondents Think Country Is Better Prepared to Handle Natural Disasters
*** NASA Photo of Hurricane Katrina
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