CITY MISSED BOAT ON DISASTER DRILL

Dear Editor:

Our community leaders once again let our city slide into obscurity. The people of Cape Girardeau missed a marvelous opportunity last weekend during Operation Steel Cure II. We had a chance to involve the entire city in an exercise designed to test our disaster readiness.

What was the stumbling block? Why didn't the mayor, city manager or chamber of commerce organize segments of this community to take part in the exercise outside of the airport?

Why didn't the city fathers take the lead in advertising, coordinating and organizing volunteers?

Why weren't the university nursing students at the Arena taking advantage of this excellent chance to observe and learn?

Where were the university law enforcement students?

Why didn't the university and area high schools send students to be disaster "victims" at the Arena?

Why weren't area companies like Dana Corporation or P&G involved?

The Red Cross were great. They had tubs of hamburgers, sandwiches and drinks at the Arena ready to feed hundreds of volunteers who never showed up.

The hospitals had staff at the Arena to learn how to cope with a major disaster, yet there were only 50-70 disaster victims who were recycled all afternoon in an effort to keep the staff busy. The Arena building was filled with mostly empty cots and the "disaster" devolved into an orderly exercise.

It is a shame that the people of Cape Girardeau continued to operate on a business-as-usual basis instead of taking advantage of experienced military personnel to learn what to do in a natural disaster. This was a chance for the city to pull itself together, work together, and learn together. Instead, our "founding fathers" missed the boat.

Melody Gibson

Cape Girardeau