Mayor and Governor Arguing: Evacuate or Stay?
More Evidence as to Why the U.S.A. Needs a
National Disaster Review Board
From this morning's Wall Street Journal online:
HOUSTON—A split between Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner over whether the metropolis should have been evacuated is raising questions about officials’ response to damaging floodwaters as a catastrophe continues to engulf the region.
Mr. Turner, a Democrat, and other local officials urged residents to stay in their homes as Hurricane Harvey, which has since downgraded to a tropical storm, approached Houston on Friday.
But at a Friday news conference, Gov. Abbott, a Republican, suggested otherwise. “Even if an evacuation order hasn’t been issued by your local official, if you’re in an area between Corpus Christi and Houston, you need to strongly consider evacuating.”
While I believe both officials were trying to do the right thing, we don't know what the "right thing" was. Our knowledge of how to handle a disaster of this nature -- which was superbly forecast by meteorologists -- is not sufficiently deep.
This story provides even more evidence as to why we need a National Disaster Review Board. I make the case for a NDRB here.
Comments
Post a Comment