Monday, September 12, 2005

No Juice

As you may have heard, there was a big electrical outage today in Los Angeles. Apparently, Michael Brown's new job is working for the Department of Water and Power.

My area was only out for a while but my Internet connection was out most of the afternoon. When it came on, I had about thirty messages telling me my website was down. I assume that's because my I.S.P. has its servers located in downtown L.A. As you can see, all is now working.

• Posted at 7:43 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

I wasn't going to link to any more articles about what went wrong with the emergency efforts in New Orleans and thereabouts. But this piece in The Wall Street Journal seems like a pretty good record of what happened with regard to the levees breaking down and news of this being spread. Once again, the National Weather Service was spot-on accurate and timely with reporting it but some newsfolks and government officials didn't seem to get the message for a very long time.

• Posted at 12:14 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Andrew Ferguson offers an interesting view of how the conservative movement has evolved in this country. This is from the Weekly Standard, which claims to be the foremost voice of conservatism.

While your browser is pointed to the right, you might like to also read an article on that site by Larry Miller. It's about...well, it'll read better if I don't tell you what it's about.

• Posted at 11:37 AM · LINK

A Word of Praise

I have written a number of posts here about government incompetence relating to Hurricane Katrina. In fairness, I should acknowledge the one department that seems to have performed with uncanny precision. That is the National Weather Service.

We joke a lot about bad weather forecasts and about how if the guy on the TV says it'll be clear and sunny, take an umbrella. In truth, while forecasts do sometimes go awry, the N.W.S. does a very good job. I just read over their forecasts leading up to and during the hurricane (archived on this page) and I was impressed, as you might be if you go there and root around. The early bulletins, issued when there were still different tracks Katrina might take, were cautious but they put everyone on alert. By the time a Category 4 (or maybe a Category 5) seemed likely, the forecasts were firm and accurate. In his weblog, NBC newsman Brian Williams wrote...

I will never forget one particular moment: I was on the phone with my wife while at the checkout area when a weather bulletin arrived on my Blackberry, along with a strong caveat from our New York producers. The wording and contents were so incendiary that our folks were concerned that it wasn't real...either a bogus dispatch or a rogue piece of text. I filed a live report by phone for Nightly News (after an exchange with New York about the contents of the bulletin) and very cautiously couched the information. Later, we learned it was real, every word of it.

Here's a link to that whole weblog entry by Williams. And if you read up on the page as far as this entry, you'll learn a bit about the folks who made the predictions and wrote those important announcements.

Why does the N.W.S. do such a good job when other agencies fail? Well, I'll suggest two thoughts. One is that it's the kind of bureau that can't be surrendered to cronyism and hiring one's old buddies. You apparently don't need a background in emergency services to work at or even run FEMA but to be involved with the National Weather Service, you have to know a lot about science and the weather. Also, there's no way to use the department to transfer large sums of money from the government to the private sector. No one gets wealthy working for the National Weather Service. No one makes their friends wealthy and then leaves to go into business with them, which leaves the opportunists out. Instead, the people at the National Weather Service just do the job they're supposed to do. More arms of government ought to try it.

• Posted at 3:03 AM · LINK