The airwaves will be saturated in the coming days with specials about the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The disaster exposed flaws in the ability of government to respond and the vulnerability of cities located along coastal lines.

A year later, what have we learned and what still needs to be done?

At the national level the Federal Emergency Management Agency was pathetic at management and couldn’t handle the emergency that was a category-4 hurricane. President Bush told Chief Michael Brown that he was doing a “good job,” but Brown was fired a few months later.

FEMA has a new leader–former fire and rescue chief in Miami and Dade County when Hurricane Andrew hit. This is a good step because his area of expertise isn’t in Arabian horses. It also allows someone with past experience in storms to craft an agency to effectively deal with local leaders during disasters.

State level readiness is somewhat more confusing. President Bush wants to have more authority over state National Guard troops so there will be a more coordinated effort. However, this removes the largest tool that governors have at their disposal. We suggest that the troops remain under the direction of each governor.

But state leaders need to have a more comprehensive plan when it comes to evacuations and positioning of supplies. Louisiana was unable to do anything once the levees broke and remained ineffective at rendering aid for a week.

The local level is where the most difference can be made before a storm. Mayors, policemen, firemen and county leaders are the ones who know the neighborhoods and should be the first line of aid for citizens. But that isn’t an excuse for state and national leaders to leave all of the relief efforts up to city governments.

As we saw during Katrina, it is difficult for local authorities to keep control when the populace descends into anarchy.

But it is the responsibility of local leaders to get people out and convince those that want to stay it is not in their best interest.

It’s the responsibility of each level of government to provide a chance for every citizen to get out if they don’t want to be in the path of a storm. That didn’t happen with Katrina.

But it should be the goal.

Government can’t stop the storms, but it can do as much as possible to help out its citizens.