美洲—美国土安全局在对卡特里娜飓风所伤的回应上面临严重置疑

Homeland Security Faces Tough Questions on

Katrina Response

美国土安全局在对卡特里娜飓风所伤的回应上面临严重置疑

 

Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff faced tough questioning Wednesday from members of Congress about the much criticized government response to Hurricane Katrina.  Mr. Chertoff was the highest-ranking U.S. official to appear before a congressional panel investigating what went wrong with disaster response.

 

Mr. Chertoff's appearance was highly anticipated, as lawmakers probe the federal, state and local responses to Hurricane Katrina, and with a new storm, Hurricane Wilma, bearing down on the state of Florida.

 

Among issues examined by congressional committees in recent weeks have been the effectiveness of FEMA (the federal emergency agency) Mr. Chertoff's own actions and those of the former emergency management chief, and the responsibilities of local and state leaders.

 

Outlining a range of actions taken or planned to improve responses in the future, Secretary Chertoff said some hard lessons have been learned from Hurricane Katrina.

 

CHERTOFF: The tragedy emphasized how critical it is that we ensure our planning and response capabilities¹, perform in an integrated fashion with seamless integrity and efficiency in any type of disaster situation.

 

As lawmakers recalled chaotic² scenes in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Chertoff said he is committed to ensuring quicker evacuations from disaster zones, and getting food and other supplies into these areas.

 

One widely broadcast scene from New Orleans, that of school buses that were to have been used for evacuation, but were swamped by the hurricane's waters and were unable to move, produced this exchange between Republican Congressman³ Harold Rogers and Mr. Chertoff:

 

ROGERS: Did the buses ever move?

 

CHERTOFF: I have certainly seen pictures of a lot of buses underwater that suggest that they did not move.

 

ROGERS: And they were lined up in a parking lot, end on end?

 

CHERTOFF: Yeah, I have seen those pictures.

 

ROGERS: And they were never used to evacuate⁴ people out of hospitals or schools or nursing homes or the like.  Where were the drivers of those buses if you know.

 

CHERTOFF: I don't know.

 

Which authority was in charge of those buses was not discussed.

 

Mr. Chertoff rejected suggestions by some that he was not sufficiently⁵ engaged in hurricane response efforts. 

 

He acknowledged frustration⁶ with the performance of Michael Brown, the former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), noting that he was unable to contact Mr. Brown by phone until late Tuesday after Hurricane Katrina struck.

 

Secretary Chertoff took issue with Mr. Brown's testimony⁷ to Congress that officials in Louisiana were "dysfunctional," and emphasized the need to better integrate efforts with state and local officials, and improve sharing of information.

 

In a separate congressional hearing, lawmakers sought the views of three state governors about disaster response, amid suggestions the federal government should assume more of a central role from state and local governments.

 

That brought this response from Florida Governor Jeb Bush, brother of President Bush, and from Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano.

 

JEB BUSH: If this responsibility is federalized then that will be as big of a disaster as any natural disaster that hits our communities.

 

NAPOLITANO: We can't do our jobs if it is federalized.

 

Governor Bush says his state as well as its local officials are prepared for Hurricane Wilma, which is moving through the Caribbean to an expected Florida landfall, but he urged residents to comply with mandatory⁸ evacuation orders.

 

Dan Robinson, VOA news, on Capitol Hill.

 

注释：

seamless [5si:mlis] adj. 没有漏洞的

chaotic [kei5Ctik] adj. 混乱的，无秩序的

evacuation [i7vAkju5eiFEn] n. 撤退

swamp [swCmp] v. 淹没

1 capabilities   

n.能力( capability的名词复数 )；可能；容量；[复数]潜在能力

参考例句：

• He was somewhat pompous and had a high opinion of his own capabilities. 他有点自大，自视甚高。 来自辞典例句
• Some programmers use tabs to break complex product capabilities into smaller chunks. 一些程序员认为，标签可以将复杂的功能分为每个窗格一组简单的功能。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

2 chaotic   

adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的

参考例句：

• Things have been getting chaotic in the office recently.最近办公室的情况越来越乱了。
• The traffic in the city was chaotic.这城市的交通糟透了。

3 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

4 evacuate   

v.遣送；搬空；抽出；排泄；大(小)便

参考例句：

• We must evacuate those soldiers at once!我们必须立即撤出这些士兵！
• They were planning to evacuate the seventy American officials still in the country.他们正计划转移仍滞留在该国的70名美国官员。

5 sufficiently   

adv.足够地，充分地

参考例句：

• It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
• The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。

6 frustration   

n.挫折，失败，失效，落空

参考例句：

• He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。

7 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。

8 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。