AMERICANS AND indeed other nationalities should have learned an unsettling lesson these last few weeks as they watched the live coverage of both Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: if storms whose arrival was announced several days ahead of time could cause this much mayhem, it was clear that a shock event, and namely a terrorist attack, could do far worse.
The images last week that flashed on our television screens of miles of highway gridlock as residents of Houston tried desperately to flee Rita, have left a lasting and troubling impression.
It is often said that despite the hype since 9/11, the U.S. has done relatively little to alter its security arrangements in order to prepare for another such attack. Given that four years have passed without incident, Americans can perhaps be forgiven for having got a little complacent. Terrorism is on the increase, but it is found elsewhere. Nevertheless, many security experts warn that sooner or later, another attack will take place on U.S. soil. If it does, and if America proves as adept at managing a crisis as it did these two storms, the incident's severity may be magnified by government bungling.
The exposure of such ineptitude to a world-wide television audience may be embarrassing to Washington, but may also be troubling for another reason. The terror networks may be emboldened to exploit the very weaknesses that the natural disasters have exposed, particularly in major cities with large populations. As Madrid and London have shown, such attacks come without the prior warning of a hurricane.
With the exception of a botched attack on Trinidad's Parliament just over a decade ago and two mysterious explosions in downtown Port of Spain earlier this year, the Caribbean has not experienced the kind of terrorist attacks known elsewhere in the world. Yet we should not be complacent.
As governments move to tighten the screws on criminal networks and the narcotics underworld, it is not far-fetched to believe that attempts might be made to undermine security in individual states.
Most regional governments have developed, with differing degrees of efficiency, fairly well-organised agencies to prepare for the natural disasters to which the region is prone. Our governments would do well to learn from the chaos in the United States these past few weeks, to improve upon our own recognised needs to evacuate people en masse ahead of approaching hurricanes, but also to prepare an appropriate response system for major incidents that put hundreds of lives at risk, whether they be freak accidents, acts fomented by terrorists or caused by nature.
Consider for example the chaos and gridlock created on the Mount Rosser road when there is an accident. How prepared are we to move people en masse to emergency centres should the need arise? Our disaster preparedness plans need to be expanded to consider these possibilities.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
