Live from the Gulf: Who are the Oil Spill Heroes?

James Carafano / July 09, 2010

This is not Governor Blanco’s Louisiana. Since Katrina, the state has reformed and refitted its ability to respond to disasters to the point that it has become a national role model in many respects.

It starts with the Gov. Bobby Jindal. Everyday, Jindal convenes a meeting of the State Unified Command Group which manages the entire state response. Both BP and the Coast Guard brief. Jindal asks the tough questions. If he doesn’t get the right answers, people know it. He sets the tone for everything—and the tone is “make things happen people.”

After Katrina, the state established a separate cabinet level position for emergency preparedness and homeland security. That was a smart move—it has been the backbone of the current response. One of the state’s initiatives was to create an Internet-based system called “Web EOC” to task and track all emergency response requests. Without that system getting crews and skimmers to the right clean-up spots, there would have been chaos. (more…)