August 29 is a date to remember

August 24, 2006 at 2:33 pm  | Mobile Reader | Print 

Not one on which we want to celebrate a great accomplishment. But one on which we want to remember an important happening that brought out the best and worst in us and how we can improve our reaction should it ever happen again.

We are referring, of course, to the date Katrina came and left its deadly aftermath. We hope it never happens again, but if it does, we want to remember the things we did wrong and right.

Our evacuation for that hurricane was fairly good, much better than that in South Texas for Hurricane Rita. But not enough people evacuated. Public facilities, including school buses, need to be put to better use.

And public officials need to be better prepared for dealing with the flooding that is always a possibility during and after such a storm. St. Charles Parish residents and officials did fairly well but we did not get the full force of the storm and its aftermath. We did, however, get a good view next door of what could have happened here.

We must remember the good and bad of how we handled Hurricane Katrina. And we must prepare ourselves accordingly if rumblings from the South Atlantic and Caribbean enter the Gulf of Mexico in the future.

So, remember August 29. It will remind us of how important it is to be well prepared.