When the Next Disaster Hits Will We Be Prepared?

Americans have been rightly frustrated by the slow, clumsy response to the Gulf oil spill by both BP and the government. But there is another side to the story: that told by civil servants working nonstop in the Gulf who don’t have the tools they need. I recently had the experience of working with many of these federal and state first-responders through an executive-education program at Harvard focusing on disaster preparedness.