I SPY - WASTE

I left a shadowy
post that I was tingling and gave no reasons why. I figured I would tell you why and what I hope to do in the next few days.
Near the middle of last year I heard of a large government emergency drill that was going to be occurring here in the Nashville area and it gained my attention for many reasons. One was the fact that "big drills" normally are more for show and less for true testing of the system.
There is an old saying that "Every War Plan Looks Good On Paper Until You Meet The Enemy". Well for natural disasters no finer example works for this saying then the whole Katrina fiasco. They had plans down there, at least on paper, and lines of authority and responsibility, also on paper. I cannot ask you to guess what happened as the nation viewed it for weeks on the cover of every magazine and newspaper in every language possible. The system collapsed and a cluster fuck occurred of historical proportions. The "system" met the enemy and collapsed like a house of cards.
This drill, called the "
Emergency Preparedness Challenge", was scheduled for last year right about the time of Katrina. Due to the fact that so many of the FEMA people were down there or in Washington the drill was rescheduled to this year.
At this point my instinct was to cried out "BS!". If you want a challenge then have the drill when a lot of the leaders are gone. Now that's a drill!. That's real life. Natural disasters do not occur on a nice scheduled plan when you can make sure everyone is here and not on vacation, all trucks are fueled and well stocked, and overtime has been ok'd from the boss upstairs. The terror felt by the fifth man down on the food chain having to make choices well above his pay grade because their boss is in Washington helping sound bite the blame of the Katrina mess elsewhere then Bush baby. The turmoil of crews going into a rescue mode with half their people gone and not knowing if anyone still here is trained on that new wizbang device homeland security grants just purchased for them. The locked file cabinet with the "plans" on it and the nearest key is on the belt of a worker in Louisiana.
That's what I would have called a real life challenge. That would have almost gained them a little respect in my eyes. Making due with what you have on hand is the nature of an emergency, not some well planned scheduled photo opportunity that this seems to be organized as.
Sadly no. The plan must be held to so the whole activity was rescheduled for a "safer" time. Now.
Now on my previous post I mentioned $500,000 dollars being wasted. I first heard of this drill when I read an
article in August of last year that they needed volunteers badly. 2,500 to be precise and they had only 100 registered by then. The article as quoted said this.
Metro officials are spending $500,000 on a massive emergency-preparedness drill next month that requires 2,500 volunteers - but only 100 have signed up.
The Mayor's Office of Emergency Management has been planning, holding meetings and putting out updates for months now for the 2005 "Emergency Preparedness Challenge," slated for Sept. 23-25.
........
The drill is being put on as part of a $1.1 million contract Metro has with a Virginia-based company, Systems Research and Applications Corp., which has technical expertise in planning and executing government emergency drills.
The numbers and my natural skepticism made me volunteer in a heartbeat. I wanted to see this waste of government money up close and personal.
Then it was put on hold due to it not being a good time to test themselves.
I went to their website and registered my blog email address for updates so I could know when to get in touch with them for volunteer work. I of course did not get contacted at all and had to email them just a week ago to see if they still needed me. They responded and immediately placed me as a volunteer coordinator in a hospital. A comment of "they must be desperate" will not be overly used, but implied.
I'm in!
Friday morning I shall show up at the hospital and help do whatever they tell me to do and with trusty digital camera in hand I will record, take pictures, and report back. I just wish I had a trenchcoat and fedora to go "Sam Spade" on them, but alas a pocketed t-shirt and slacks will do for this infiltration of their group.
If any other bloggers in the middle Tennessee area want to volunteer drop them a line and blog on what you experienced. I will admit I see things through skeptical eyes and other bloggers views of it would be great. If you do email me a link to your post. There are many openings still for volunteers and we bloggers can have a field day. Just last week the mayor said they only had
"13- hundred" volunteers and needed three times that many.
So this is how I will help blow $500,000 this weekend. Wish me luck.