Norris says state emergency plans are lacking

By Nina Cardona of WPLN
September 7, 2005

The chair of the state senate’s Transportation and Safety committee says Tennessee must do more to prepare for a major disaster.

Senator Mark Norris says the response to Hurricane Katrina shows what can go wrong when communications break down. Currently, he says Tennessee has no adequate communications plan.

“One has to wonder-what would a sitting governor do if he or she needed to convene the general assembly for appropriations beyond their emergency powers. How would they find the members? We don’t even have a call tree.”

Norris says the state needs to devise better communications protocols for future emergencies. He also says there should be an accounting of the assets available to the state in the event of a disaster.

Norris says those measures are overdue.

“Two years ago we had straight line winds and inland hurricanes here in West Tennessee. The city of Memphis was shut down for weeks without power. No adequate plan, really, to respond under those circumstances. So we really hadn’t learned much in the way of preparedness after 9-11, then 2003, now today are we better prepared today than we were before 9-11? I don’t think so.”

Norris has written Governor Phil Bredesen, expressing his concerns about the state’s disaster response strategies. And he says he plans to schedule hearings of the senate transportation and safety committee on the matter during the next legislative session.