Do we even have a preparedness plan?

As I sit safe in my home here in Granite Falls, I am appalled by the unacceptable disaster preparedness plan, which in my view was non-existent in the Gulf states. Is this the type of response we can expect in the event of a natural or unnatural disaster? What do we need to do now to prepare our state’s citizens for such an event? Do we even have a disaster plan? Or, if we are all in the same boat as those suffering in the Gulf, what can we citizens do to insure our most vulnerable citizens don’t suffer this same fate?

I am a disabled person. What am I to do if a disaster occurs here? It is painfully clear to me as I watch these terrible events unfold that the ones who are suffering the most are the elderly, the very young and the infirm, all of whom depend on the notion that state and federal agencies will be there for them. What are all these poor homeless and, yes, helpless American citizens of the Gulf states going to do? Once the water recedes, they will still be homeless, their towns, churches and schools washed away, their family members missing or dead, crying out asking for their basic needs to be met.

How can we continue under the misguided belief that Homeland Security, FEMA and state agencies have the means and know-how to insure this ill preparedness will not occur again?

Becky Will

Granite Falls