- A quick hurricane musing

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Mike Prosser <mprosser () symantec com>
Date: September 22, 2005 6:00:55 PM EDT
To: Richard Forno <rforno () infowarrior org>
Cc: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>, Infowarrior List <infowarrior@g2- 
forward.org>, Bruce Schneier <schneier () counterpane com>
Subject: Re: [infowarrior] - A quick hurricane musing


Rich,

Sitting here in San Antonio, watching all the traffic coming in, it is a
mess for sure.  But, Houston is always difficult to get through
traffic-wise on a normal day so with the emphasis on everyone trying to
get out at the same time it is compounded.  Along with this, there is  
road
construction which prevented some of the major lanes out of Houston  
being
used..another bonus...and all the stations are running out of gas which
isn't helping matters.

Fuel supplies come from, you guessed it, Galveston and Houston and the
refrineries shutdown to prepare for the storms.  We are even running out
of gas in the stations here in San Antonio as the evacuees arrive and  
fill
up and locals attempt to fill up prior to the fuel price increase.

Couple all this with the always agressive and rather poor driving of the
majority of Texas drivers and long lines of cars in the Texas heat is a
real mess

-mike

Symantec





Richard Forno <rforno () infowarrior org>
Sent by: <infowarrior () g2-forward org>
09/22/2005 03:28 PM

To
Infowarrior List <infowarrior () g2-forward org>
cc
Dave Farber <dave () farber net>, Bruce Schneier <schneier () counterpane com>
Subject
[infowarrior] - A quick hurricane musing







The Texas evacuations are going to include upwards of 2 million+ people.

CNN reports that people have been sitting on the road for over twelve
hours
trying to flee Galveston and the Houston area. With that said, Houston
just
- just - opened up its southbound lanes to the northbound traffic  
flow to
aid in the evacuation down there, and also lifted various HOV
restrictions.

This is with 2-3 days ADVANCE NOTICE of a crisis.

What the devil would they do if they had no notice and needed to  
evacuate
mass numbers of people from....say, an unannounced terrorist attack?

Evacuating from an approaching hurricane likely is no different than
evacuating from a terrorist attack, and if we're having this much  
trouble
responding to Mother Nature,  I'm not very optimistic about our  
ability to
respond effectively to a major act of terrorism despite the billions  
spent
on "homeland security" to date. Clearly, we have our priorities  
skewed in
this area....more money and attention has been spent on high-tech  
programs
and other initiatives to present the illusion of security (against
"terrorism") than on funding the local responders and government offices
that would be at the center of any response to a major "homeland  
security"
crisis, be it terrorism or Mother Nature.

It's a good bet that our responses these past few weeks have not gone
unnoticed by potential terrorists who now see how utterly unprepared
America
is for major events, and they -- like a growing number of American
citizens
-- realize that despite the bold Beltway rhetoric to the contrary,  
when it
comes to domestic preparedness four years after 9/11, the Emperor still
has
no clothes.

A most disturbing situation, in my view.

-Rick
Infowarrior.org




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