Several influential voices have been beating the alarm tocsins about all this, warning the ponderous U.S. bureaucracy to move on an emergency wartime footing to redress the situation. Even before 9/11, the U.S. Commission on National Security, co-chaired by former Sen. Warren B. Rudman, had warned that the civil (non-military) aspects of homeland security "must be enhanced." The commission also urged that the National Guard — now deeply immersed in Iraq — should be trained and equipped for a significant role in homeland defense.

Rudman went on to chair a Council on Foreign Relations task force which warned that a year after 9/11 "America remains dangerously unprepared to prevent and respond to a catastrophic terrorist attack on U.S. soil."

In 2003, Rudman chaired yet another CFR task force specifically focusing on the state of preparedness of "emergency responders," the police and firemen and medical personnel who would be first on the scene of any homeland catastrophy. While recognizing progress made by the new Department of Home Security, the task force found local emergency responders "drastically underfunded" and still "dangerously unprepared" to handle a catastrophic attack, "particularly one involving chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-impact conventional weapons."

The task force said a major obstacle hampering America's preparedness efforts was that funding had been sidetracked and stalled due to a politicized appropriations process, the slow distribution of funds by federal agencies, and bureaucratic red tape at all levels of government.

It called for a number of actions requiring more money, including a national 911 system; significant enhancement of search-and-rescue capabilities in major cities and FEMA; training emergency medical technicians to respond to mass casualties; helping develop "surge capacity" in the nation's hospitals; and support for "an extensive series of national exercises" that would improve response techniques.

The task force credited the Bush administration, Congress, governors and mayors with taking important steps since 9/11 to respond to catastrophic events. But task force members today say much remains to be done. Last week's stark pictures of chaos and hardship in Louisiana and Texas are testimony to the credibility of that view.

---

John Hughes is editor and chief operating officer of the Deseret Morning News. He is a former editor of the Christian Science Monitor, which syndicates this column. E-mail: hughes@desnews.com