The local paper is printing my LTTE as a guest column.

Wrote a piece on emergency preparedness, and how despite South Jersey's history with hurricanes and other emergencies, we flat out aren't ready.

Got a call this morning that they're going to use it as a "My View" guest column instead of among the letters:

"Nearly two generations have passed since Hurricane Hazel washed out huge pieces of Cape May County, and most young adults today don't even remember Hurricane Gloria. In the twenty years since a major hurricane last made landfall in our area, too many people have grown complacent. It's not a question of “if” a Katrina-sized storm slams into the Atlantic Coast or comes up the Delaware Bay, it's a question of “when.” It may not be in our lifetime, but New Orleans proves that we can't afford to gamble on that possibility.
"I'm not here to point fingers. The time for calling those responsible for the chaos in Louisiana to account will come, but it's more important here and now that everyone, especially those of us here in South Jersey, learn the real lessons of Hurricane Katrina and get our own house in order."

I then go on to suggest the need to plan for shelters for evacuees, equip them fast, and be ready to do the job without help that might come too late - if at all - from the Feds. I was also very clear about the need to take the poor and less mobile into account in an evacuation.

Not a scathing indictment, but the tack I think some of us should be taking. We need to not only criticize the job * and his flunkies have done, but step forward with answers.

i was there for gaston, erm, last yr i think, true just a tropical storm & it came to zip but if anyone was much concerned i saw no evidence of it

i used to scratch my head and not know what ppl were talking abt yelling at "developers" on barrier islands & whatnot

after all in louisiana there are no "developers" on barrier islands, there are just families in mostly single family dwellings who have been on only one barrier island, grand isle, for over a century & who need to be there for the petroleum industry, fishing industry, etc.

then i saw the jersey shore

wow

it is a beautiful area but god help you if a storm hits because they do not always give you a nice neat 72 hr warning

stay safe ya'll

i hate to think of the financial & human cost of a cat 3 much less a cat 5 hitting an area so wealthy that is so built up w. ppl living in such density

yr letter is a good one

congratulations i hope you are heard

discovery channel said there is a similar bad situation in manhattan, new york, that a cat 2 could do katrina-style damage there because of the density of the ppl & the value of the real estate

a little ol cat 2!

i hope they are wrong because soooner or later a cat 2 just has to happen, they just aren't that rare

Long Island may have taken the brunt of Gloria in 1985, but Manhattan and Jersey got it pretty bad, too. I remember New York was practically in chaos.