Katrina lessons apparently not learned well enough

Residents all along the gulf coast, and especially metro New Orleans, are having a bad case of déjà vu right now.  A month ago we first heard the news that an oil rig exploded and eventually sank in the gulf might be “leaking” oil into the water.  The oil “leak” turned into an all out geyser, and now that problem has found a home squarely in the marshes of southern Louisiana.

Oil finally invades the marshes

The big news this week is that the oil has invaded the marshes south of New Orleans.  The bad news is that the oil is not the light, fine crude or manageable “tar balls” that many were predicting.  Instead the photos taken yesterday clearly show thick brown oil as dense as paint covering miles of delicate marshland and heading further inland.

And while residents are clearly frustrated with the ongoing crisis, local politicians are raging mad about many of the same issues we faced less than 5 years ago with the Katrina response.

Slow responses from federal government hampering efforts

Local political officials including Plaquemine’s Parish President Billy Nungesser, St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro and Governor Bobby Jindal have been critical of the federal response to their pleas for emergency help.  In an interview on WWL Radio Nungesser indicated that federal officials are sticking to their procedures for issuing permits and still reviewing requests made weeks ago that could have been granted and potentially stemmed the damage which is currently taking place.

Local officials are still awaiting approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for an emergency permit needed to dredge sand from nearby areas for the construction of a line of sand berms which would act as protective barrier islands to help block the oil.   And while no one is quite sure how effective they would be, almost everyone agrees that sandy beaches are easier to clean than the broken marshes that make up much of Louisiana’s coast.

The New Ground Zero

Plaquemine’s Parish is home to towns like Buras and Venice which have been the scene of first response.  However politicians all over the area have been actively telling anyone who would listen about the road blocks they are encountering when trying to obtain the help they need.

In the past few days, Senator Mary Landrieu has been questioning a federal regulation preventing local fisherman and other affected businesses from securing emergency loans from the Small Business Administration (SBA), despite the pledges of British Petroleum (BP) to put up the collateral needed to repay these loans.

Meanwhile David Vitter, Louisiana’s other senator, has been wrapped up in battles over flood protection and trying to advance funding of oil related dollars from oil royalties to help pay for the cleanup.

Perhaps the most unfortunate politician has been new mayor Mitch Landrieu who has been forced to toss out any plans he may have had for his first days in office to focus largely on the local response to the oil spill.

Apparently no lessons learned from Katrina

Local residents and politicians are clearly disgusted from hearing that things like “procedure” and “red tape” are holding up the process.  This oil spill crisis, much like Katrina, has a time sensitive element to it in that the faster the response the better changes of minimizing damages.  However in this case, nearly 4 weeks after the initial incident, help is still slow in coming and the residents, wildlife and marshes of the coastal Gulf South will be the ones to suffer for it.

As the events of the last few weeks have reminded us, life in southern Louisiana is never dull.  A few years ago it was Hurricane Katrina and now it’s the oil spill in the Gulf providing stark reminders of the role that technology plays in our lives, especially here locally.

Think about the lessons we’ve learned from these disasters:

1. People are communicating differently – As my neighbor and I like to argue, most people are consuming their news in some form of electronic medium either via television or online.  Fewer and fewer people are “taking the paper” so to speak.  News from these disasters spread almost instantly across the internet including photos, news and video.  However by the time the paper comes the next day that news cycle is almost a full 24 hours old.
2. Communication has never been more important – With so many tools for communicating at our disposal the need to stay in touch is higher than ever, as is the reliance on technology.  If you took away the blackberry’s and iphones of busy people they might actually go into convulsions.
3. Multi media is king - if you look through Google search suggestions for “gulf oil spill” you will see suggestions for things like “gulf oil spill video,” “gulf oil spill photos,” etc.  What that tells you is that people are looking for more than just writing and words – they are looking to experience this story through all the types of media available to us today.
4. Reliable Information is invaluable – Getting accurate and fast information has never been more critical.  Maybe it’s because everyone has a mobile phone bu the truth is that our margins for error have gone way down in recent years.  What used to take days now takes seconds when it comes to distributing information..making it all the more important to become a trusted source of information no matter what you do.

So how does this relate to your business?  Simple really.  If you think that you can get by with a 5 page brochure website and actually claim online success I think you are in for an unpleasant surprise.    The people who are succeeding online have recognized these trends mentioned in this post and are using their websites and online tools to engage their clients and provide them what they are after.

Don’t wait to do something about these changes.  Get yourself engaged online in the discussion.