Egads
 

Very impressive (I read the Fortune article Gatti linked to also). Logistics fascinate me.

Egads
 

The Newshour on PBS did an interesting piece on cities' evacuation plans last night:

Link

Delay = RINO
 

When we said Roosevelt lied, and Penkse even cited that speech, you demanded more cites. In other words questioning the validity of our assertions. In addition, you argued against the fact that lend lease was a sweet heart deal for the british and also questioned whether my other assertions like the destroyer escorts really happened and whether such acts were really a provocation. Such arguments, demands for cites and assertions would only be made by someone who wanted to dispute the fact that FDR misled the American people.

Am I wrong?

Egads
 

My favorite blurb from the article:

• There was little guesswork involved. Wal-Mart has studied customer buying patterns in hurricane-prone areas. Some of the company's findings are obvious: When a storm is on the way, customers stock up on bottled water, flashlights, generators, and tarps. Afterward, they buy chain saws and mops. But there have been surprises too. Customers also load up on Strawberry Pop-Tarts. Why is that? "They are preserved until you open them, the whole family can eat them, and they taste good," says Dan Phillips, Wal-Mart's vice president, information systems division.

Egads
 

Maybe we should contract out FEMAs responsiblities to WalMart? After we get the school voucher program into full gear.

Egads
 

Dunno, but it's clear that Wal-Mart had more of its shit put together than anyone on the government level getting ready for Katrina.

Obviously there's a lot of self-interest there, and that may very well be why they're so good at it. They know what stuff people need, and they know how to react quickly to get people what they need if for some reason there's a run on the store. It's what they do, disaster or no disaster, and they're very, very good at it. That it was their customer base that was the most impacted by the storm probably went a long way towards their decision to give over 20 million in help.

The thing is, getting stuff from point A to point B quickly is only one part of disaster recovery. It's an important part, but certainly the medical personnel (and don't get me started on the physician that FEMA kicked out of the New Orleans airport while he was trying to recussitate someone because he wasn't on the approved list of credentialed physicians), search and rescue, housing, etc. need to be coordinated and considered, and I'm not sure that a private company or foundation can/should accomplish that.

Egads
 

Rush hour in any major city should tell you all you need to know about the possible sucess of any "evacuation plan." And Houston had days over which to do it. Contrast a terrorist stike. "There's been a dirty bomb. Everyone leave NOW!" We can't evacuate a city. Besides what happened in NYC when there was a strike? All traffic was shut down in and out of the city.

Egads
 

So your saying governments should just say "fuck it"?

Houston got something like 2.5 million people out of the city in about 36 hours. Sure, it doesn't mean shit if a nuclear bomb explodes, but that could significantly reduce casualties in the event of a dirty bomb (where length of exposure matters in addition to intensity).

And anyway, hurricanes are much more likely than terrorist exploding dirty bombs, especially now that Bush invaded Iraq and got rid of terrorism.

Egads
 

Alien invasion - we're all toast.

Egads
 

Captain Stubing was pretty cool but you still have the best Avatar. I miss the big enchilada.

Egads
 

Outsourcing doesn't have to be all or nothing.

Egads
 

Of course not. If my post led you to the conclusion that I thought that was the case, I apologize for my lack of clarity. I just think it's interesting WalMart did such a great job getting stuff into the affected area, but I can't think of a way they or anyone else could have done the same getting people out.

Wait, I just did - where the hell were the PLANES?

Egads
 

Isn't there a difference between getting water delivered and traffic control?

While the military is pretty good at logistics, too, and I'd say has more experience with logistics in situations where the infrastructure is essentially taken out first, the military is also accustomed to a lot of lead time.

Egads
 

You weren't watching. Houston could have done better. It took Houston a day to relaize it should let people drive out on both sides of the freeway. You are old enough to have gone to games at the old Oreiles (sp?) stadium aren't you? They had all lanes gone in before the game and all lanes going out after. I could have told Houston to do that from the start.

But the point is, a city's ability to get empty quickly is tied to population density and arteries. We aren't changing either.

Egads
 

Do you have any idea what this does to your credibility generally?