Katrina: The storm is over, the stupidity never ends
Reuters
Updated: 12:39 a.m. ET Aug 25, 2006
BLUFFTON, S.C. - At 12:33 in the morning on Aug. 31, 2005, John Giljam, inventor and fabricator of the world's first unsinkable bus, tapped out an urgent e-mail to his customers across the United States.
A day earlier, Giljam had "placed a call to FEMA to see if our Hydra Terras can be used in time to save lives," he wrote. "I am awaiting a reply ... I ask you all to consider offering your vehicles and operators to save those in New Orleans if the call comes in that our machines could make a difference."
the rest of the story is here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14504250/
Let it suffice to say that this guy had a great, viable alternative to helicopter rescues, but absolutely no one he contacted "had the authority to authorize" their use. A year later..
In the end, the Giljams' failure to get any agency interested in the Hydra Terra during Katrina may be best explained by the fact that rescuers were drowning in a flood of phone calls, and simply did not have time to pay close attention to each one.
"We were getting thousands of phone calls a day and we were in the process of saving lives," Mark Smith, a public information officer at the governor's office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness in Baton Rouge, said recently. Still waiting on an answer Would authorities in Louisiana be interested today in studying Giljam's amphibious bus?
"If he's got something that works, we'd love to take a look," Smith said, adding a caveat: The Hydra Terra "would have to be not only good on land and water, but in really, really deep mud as well." (*NO ONE, including the government has a vehicle that can do that)
On March 22, the Giljams mailed the New Orleans Fire Department a prospectus for the Hydra Terra, a basic version of which retails at about $225,000. On May 10, they sent the specifications to the police department of Gulfport, Miss., then to FEMA.
The Giljams are still waiting for a response.
Crisises come and go, government arrogance and stupidity never ends.
Updated: 12:39 a.m. ET Aug 25, 2006
BLUFFTON, S.C. - At 12:33 in the morning on Aug. 31, 2005, John Giljam, inventor and fabricator of the world's first unsinkable bus, tapped out an urgent e-mail to his customers across the United States.
A day earlier, Giljam had "placed a call to FEMA to see if our Hydra Terras can be used in time to save lives," he wrote. "I am awaiting a reply ... I ask you all to consider offering your vehicles and operators to save those in New Orleans if the call comes in that our machines could make a difference."
the rest of the story is here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14504250/
Let it suffice to say that this guy had a great, viable alternative to helicopter rescues, but absolutely no one he contacted "had the authority to authorize" their use. A year later..
In the end, the Giljams' failure to get any agency interested in the Hydra Terra during Katrina may be best explained by the fact that rescuers were drowning in a flood of phone calls, and simply did not have time to pay close attention to each one.
"We were getting thousands of phone calls a day and we were in the process of saving lives," Mark Smith, a public information officer at the governor's office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness in Baton Rouge, said recently. Still waiting on an answer Would authorities in Louisiana be interested today in studying Giljam's amphibious bus?
"If he's got something that works, we'd love to take a look," Smith said, adding a caveat: The Hydra Terra "would have to be not only good on land and water, but in really, really deep mud as well." (*NO ONE, including the government has a vehicle that can do that)
On March 22, the Giljams mailed the New Orleans Fire Department a prospectus for the Hydra Terra, a basic version of which retails at about $225,000. On May 10, they sent the specifications to the police department of Gulfport, Miss., then to FEMA.
The Giljams are still waiting for a response.
Crisises come and go, government arrogance and stupidity never ends.
posted by Dalt Danyon at 4:17 PM
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