EMERGENCY RESPONSE.....

From the Houston Chronicle :

Houston has 'better plan' than most cities-

Many major metropolitan areas simply improvise, experts say -

Even factoring in the spectacular traffic jams, Houston was better prepared to respond to a major disaster than most major U.S. cities, experts said Monday. "Houston has a better plan than many major cities I have looked at," said Paul Light, an expert on emergency response with New York University.

"Chicago doesn't have a plan that I know of. Los Angeles can't figure out how to evacuate, and New York just has too many choke points to get people out," Light said. "Conventional wisdom is that if Washington was forced to evacuate quickly, it would be a mess."Light said Houston's plan worked about as well as could be expected, despite the glitches that developed. "Some things are going to occur under the 'stuff happens' heading, like failing to have tanker trucks stationed in the right place or reversing traffic flow," he said. "All you can do is learn from it."

James Car-afano, a homeland security expert with the conservative Heritage Foundation, shared Light's assessment. "Right now, a lot of cities just
improvise these things," he said. The Homeland Security Department and the Federal Emergency Management Agency have begun an effort tolearn the lessons of Rita and Katrina, officials said Monday.