Editorial
Concluding thoughts on the new nature of disaster management
Critical Care 2006, 10:111 doi:10.1186/cc3946
Published: 14 December 2005First paragraph (this article has no abstract)
Environmental cataclysms will be with mankind even after we have learned to prevent man-made disasters. Prior to the Katrina hurricane, disaster planning, preparedness and responses were mostly theoretical and based on our preconceived notions of what a disaster should be [1]. Mostly untested except on relative small scales. Katrina has changed that in many ways. We knew Katrina was coming. We knew with uncanny precision how it would affect us. We watched it approach, arrive and depart. We articulated what we should do and we found out vividly what we couldn't do despite our best intentions.