I commend your efforts to improve the disaster response in this country through better accountability. I am sure that you are maintaining this project with little money, staff or time considering the topic at hand.

As an emergency management professional who has woked a lot of hurricanes, including Wilma, I want to take issue with you mass care question. In particular, I want to take issue with your insinuation that the response to Hurricane Wilma was inadequate.

For a number of reasons Hurricane Wilma was an extremely diffucult disaster. The tyranny of the geography of the peninsula plays havoc with the logistics of any response. The biggest problem is that six and a half million people are crammed into a narrow strip of land between a swamp and the Atlantic Ocean.

Despite these diffculties the state of Florida, with the assistance of the federal government and the voluntary agencies, conducted a truly outstanding response. The efforts of the American Red Cross, The Salvation Army and The Southern Baptist Disaster Relief were particularly noteworthy.

Since Wilma was the eighth hurricane to hit the state in a 16 month period, the considerable practice and experience that had been gained was instrumental in the success of the response. To say that the response was inadequate, and in particular the mass care response, is incorrect, regardless of what any newspaper said.

Craig Fugate did say that the disaster did not meet his expectations. That’s true. Craig has very high standards. By the standards of anywhere else in the country, the response was terrific.

On a final point, I recommend that you re-direct your mass care criticisms away from the Red Cross. Not that the Red Cross does not need some criticism. In the Big Picture, which is where you need to keep your focus, the shortfall in mass care capability is at the state level. The Governor and his/her state emergency management staff have the responsibility to request additional federal resources, when necessary, to augment the mass care delivered by the Red Cross and the other voluntary agencies.

A lot of the states don’t know how to perform this role, or even that they should be performing it. Efforts are underway to fix this. This is probably something that should be pushed.

I don’t imagine that this is at the top of Craig Fugate’s list, but it is something that he will get to in do time.