The Weakest Link in a Crisis

General Honore is retiring from the Army and moving to Emory University to build a disaster-relief curriculum. Gen. Honore, in a Christian Science Monitor interview, states that the greatest and largely unlearned lesson of Katrina is that civic response remains the weakest link. He hopes to restore a "culture of preparedness" to America not unlike that which existed during the days of the Cold War.

Gen. Honore's focus on enhancing civilian capabilities is in line with the need expressed at the Crisis Leadership Forum. In essence, we need to broaden our perspective on who is responsible for leadership in a crisis. Crises like Katrina erode the effectiveness of centralized leadership and drive the burden of leadership to the grassroots. How many of us are ready to step into the void?

Restoring Community

One of the issues that the Crisis Leadership Forum raised was the notion that crises are often chronic -- i.e., they last for a long, long time. In the case of Hurricane Katrina, the long recovery is far from over especially for those hardest hit.

An NPR story "Storm Survivors Face Hard Choices in New Orleans" reports that only 40 percent of the residents of St. Bernard's Parish have returned home. What's hardest to rebuild are the communities that have vanished says Angele Givens in the NPR piece:

"Let me tell you what I did lose," she says. "My neighbors. My church. My kids' school. My social network. My friends. Today, your friends are all here. Tomorrow, they're in Conneticut and they're never coming back."

The Community Center of St. Bernard created by Forum participant Iray Nabatoff helps those returning home "gather to reconnect" as they rebuild their lives, businesses and neighborhoods. This work of restoring community and spirit after a crisis may be the most essential rebuilding work of all.