The Post-Katrina Drawing Board

Business Group Offers Plan to Coordinate Disaster Response

After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, many business leaders complained that despite contributions of $1.2 billion in relief or services, too many efforts to help the U.S. disaster response were thwarted by red tape.

Truckloads of goods were turned back on the roads by police or the National Guard. Donations of vital telecommunications gear were delayed, although they could have provided critical phone and computer links in the early hours. Big retailers offered bottled water at low cost but had to sell to the government through approved contractors that charged taxpayers more.

Yesterday, Business Executives for National Security, a nonprofit, nonpartisan advisory group representing disaster-related industries, released "Getting Down to Business," a plan for public-private disaster coordination.

Among its recommendations:

· Add businesses to emergency operations centers run by states and big cities nationwide and make their involvement a condition for federal homeland security grants.

· Include businesses in emergency planning, training and exercises, and in the National Response Plan, the main blueprint for U.S. disaster response.

· Create business equivalents to Emergency Management Assistance Compacts, in which states around the country agree to help one another in a disaster.

· Overhaul the government's emergency logistics, purchasing and donations management practices into faster, ready-to-use packages.

· Rewrite the nation's disaster laws and the National Response Plan to include the private sector; tackle issues such as liability, medical and regulatory waivers; and make businesses eligible for federal aid when carrying out disaster responsibilities, such as providing security for emergency repairs.

-- Spencer S. Hsu