Day 482 - Step 2: More Lessons for PDA from the Past

From time to time I’ve promised you a plain reading of the condition of PDA, here is another chapter. The next blog entry will be a reflection on some of my experiences in seminary this summer.


One very big problem with PDA in the Gulf is its (lack of) organization. This reflects overall on its effectiveness in most arenas. From my experience this is related to the ego of one person who has been involved in the Katrina/Wilma response since the beginning. As I said earlier, the people who blaze the path usually are not the people to lead the army down the path.

Any one who has worked in a technical organization, or for that matter in an effective organization knows the value of documentation. It is as fundamental as breathing. PDA has no effective process documentation.

Here are some gross objective shortcomings of PDA, as late as May 2009:

1. There are no written documents or procedures on how to set up a village in response to a storm in the gulf or elsewhere.

2. There is no written document for evacuating the gulf that benefits form the experiences of evacuation during storms of 2008. In fact I know that revision of the process has been on the plate of the manager in the Gulf for some time yet when the opportunity to draw on the experience of people who went through an evacuation was there, he shirked it.

3. The is no written documentation on how to set up a village in response to a major disaster.

4. The issue of logistics is treated cavalierly. Rather than position or station materials and equipment in specified locations, the local management just auctioned off almost all the tools, equipment and materials purchased for Katrina that could be used in the future in other disasters.

5. There is an absence of continuity of staff. Continuity builds corporate intelligence that is the basis for doing a better job in the future. As best I can tell, beyond the previous financial manager and case manager liaison whose contracts were not renewed after two years, there has been no tenure longer than 1 year (+/-) by any staff member. Except for me, I do not think anyone was requested to write something one would call a “report.” This is probably the greatest failure of leadership.

The consequence of all this is wasted donations, precious money. It costs far more to re-learn the actions required in the future by repeating the mistakes of the past than to rely on an objective, dispassionate real-time assessment and procedure based on past actions.

Why is this happening? The people who could make it happen have no authority and the ones who have authority are impotent, blinded by their inexperience.