Nearly five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Washington D.C. has not met federal guidelines for managing a catastrophic event, a federal security analysis has concluded.
Only 31 percent of the city’s plans were deemed sufficient, according to a Homeland Security Department scorecard of the nation’s emergency response agencies.
Sixty-seven percent were deemed partially sufficient and two percent insufficient. In New York City, the other target of al-Qaida terrorists in 2001, 29 percent of the plans were deemed sufficient. Seventy-one percent were deemed as partially sufficient.
“That doesn’t mean that we’re not ready for a major disaster,” said Ed Reiskin, D.C.’s deputy mayor for public safety and justice. “We’ve been through a major disaster and we responded well. But there are many areas that need attention.”
In the city’s self-assessment, emergency experts determined that more work was needed in the areas of mass care and evacuation, Reiskin said. Reiskin had not seen the review and didn’t know what areas were deemed insufficient.
Plans were rated for evacuations, medical care, sheltering of victims, public alerts and other emergency priorities.
The majority of the states and cities plans don’t meet federal guidelines for managing a catastrophic event, according to the nationwide review of emergency plans ordered by President Bush after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the New Orleans.
The shortcomings in emergency planning, including antiquated and uncoordinated response guidelines, are cause “for significant national concern,” Homeland Security’s analysis concluded.
Florida was the only state to meet all of the department’s basic requirements for planning for catastrophes. Response plans for Louisiana, still devastated from hurricanes Katrina and Rita, were deemed insufficient to manage huge emergencies.
The report found that the 18 hurricane-prone states were judged by peers to have emergency plans “that were more likely to be rated sufficient … than other states.”
“We might not be able to evacuate as well as Miami, but we aren’t likely to see the same scenario either,” Reiskin said.
The most common deficiency among the nation’s emergency plans was the absence of a clearly defined command structure.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
