Six months after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and a swath of the Gulf Coast, the House of Representatives Select Bipartisan Committee issued a report to assess the preparation and response to that historic storm, which killed more than 1,800 people.
“Four and a half years after 9/11, America is still not ready for prime time,” it bluntly stated. “Government failed because it did not learn from past experiences, or because lessons thought to be learned were somehow not implemented.”
That report and others like it called for dramatic changes in how the United States prepares for and responds to national emergencies.
The above is an excerpt of a piece originally published in CNN.