In this article from today’s Bee we see, once again, how little prepared government is for the inevitable everyone agrees will happen at some point, and as so tragically did, presented for all eyes to see in New Orleans last year.
This is not necessarily a terminal characteristic of human beings, as another post from today also looks at, but one that is apparently built in as we continually hope that our luck holds, so we continue to not do the kind of prudent disaster preparation that past events would indicate is proper.
It is also very Californian, as our state was built on luck, the second chance, the sudden change from poverty to riches, and we have generally thrived from that attitude
We’ll continue to keep our fingers crossed.
Here is an excerpt.
No flood umbrella for state agencies
Key offices ready to evacuate, but plans aren't coordinated.
By Carrie Peyton Dahlberg -- Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PDT Tuesday, April 18, 2006
The way Tony Beard Jr. sees it, all he really needs are pens, yellow legal pads and people.
California's legislators drafted laws with pen and paper for generations, and they could do it again if they had to in the event of a downtown flood, said Beard, who, as the Senate's chief sergeant-at-arms, helps brace lawmakers for disaster.
In a city so vulnerable to flooding, Beard likes to take a dual-barreled approach: Plan to provide everything lawmakers need, but be ready to get by with the bare essentials.
From inside the state's domed Capitol, gleaming atop a gentle slope amid palms and camellias, to a boxy state lottery warehouse on a dead-end road down by the American River, state government officials are including the possibility of a flooded downtown in their disaster plans.
If levees lining the Sacramento and American rivers give way, water would slosh into central Sacramento, displacing people who issue the state's paychecks, prosecute its worst criminals and manage its highways.
They'd have anywhere from a few hours to several days, depending on which levee breaks, to grab what's most precious and regroup at alternative sites.
The biggest and most crucial state agencies say they're ready, and could forge on with minor delays in public services or with no disruption at all.
Yet no broad oversight exists for thoroughness or timeliness of any aspect of disaster plans, except for data processing. There is no advance coordination to ensure state agencies don't rely too much on the same backup resources.
"I don't think you're necessarily going to have competition for assets or resources," said Eric Lamoureux, top spokesman for the Governor's Office of Emergency Services. "Each department is expected to make its own arrangements for its needs. There's no one agency that's responsible for checking up."
OES so far has limited its role to helping some agencies devise model disaster plans that could be used as examples by others.
But some additional oversight comes from the state Department of Finance, with its special charge to make sure computerized data is stored safely and accessible readily.
Although the department isn't specifically asked to investigate how the 120 disaster plans it reviews annually will dovetail, it would notice a pattern of over-reliance on any one fallback system, said H.D. Palmer, the department's deputy director. So far it hasn't seen that.
Some worry that more should be done upfront.
