Homeland INsecurity.

I am sure that others will be asking this, but I have a question. The Department of Homland Security has been in operation now for several years. I had thought that one of the assigned tasks of this massive federal agency was to prepare the nation for the threat of terrorist attacks. With me so far? Ok, now I admit that I am a novice at this stuff, not a highly trained and experienced professional like they hire at the Department of Homeland Security, but it seems to me that one of the first things you plan for are mass evacuations from cities. Makes kind of sense dosen't it. Where will the terrorist strike? A corn field in mid-Iowa? Nope. Likely to be a crowded city. As part of keeping the people safe, an orderly plan for evacuation of areas would seem to be a natural.

So, having this in mind...where is the vaunted Department of Homeland Security after Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita? We have a miserable disaster in New Oreans because they had no evacuation plan. We have the making of a catastrophe in TExas as thousands of Americans jamb the limited evacuation routes away from the approaching storm. Dosen't seem that people in charge have given much thought to something as basic as, "how will we get the people who depend on us to safety?"

I admit that it is a big job and that the combination of city, state and fed's will have to share culpability...but overall, isn't this what Homeland Security was supposed to do? Find and stop the bad guys belongs to law enforcement. Protecting American Citizens from attack, responding to the attack, and keeping the harm to a minimum, be it Al Queda or Hurrican Rita, is the job of Homeland Security.

Isn't it?

This is the largest agency in the U.S. Government, and they have been blessed with lots of tax dollars, what have they been doing for 4 fours?