Is Philly Ready for a Disaster?

The Inquirer today has a huge piece on catastrophic scenarios and the effect each would have on the Delaware Valley region:

Case in point: Philadelphia has no plan for a total evacuation. "We haven't had that type of discussion since early in the Cold War," said Pedro Ramos, the city's managing director.

The city does have a smaller-scale evacuation plan, geared for specific crises, but officials will not share it with the public - security reasons, they say.

But it is clear the city's plans have some loopholes - big ones.

One crucial document says evacuations should be coordinated by the city's deputy mayor for transportation. The city has not had a deputy mayor for transportation since 1999.

Now, after Hurricane Katrina, city and state emergency planners are scrambling to plug the holes.

Mayor Street on Friday, acknowledging shortcomings, pledged to fix them - starting with a retooled evacuation plan.

"There's an awful lot of coordination and an awful lot of work that has to be done," he said.

Gov. Rendell has ordered all communities to do the same thing, paying particular attention to whether they could move people without cars out of harm's way.

Philadelphia's population is nearly as poor as New Orleans'. One in three households has no car.

"I am now convinced you err on the side of evacuating first," Rendell said. "If nothing happened, I would take the brunt of people being ticked off."

Sure you would, Ed. Aside from this showing terrorists every single potential target, the idea is mostly right.