As Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma successively lashed the Gulf Coast starting in late August 2005,
nature’s fury exposed serious weaknesses in the United States’s emergency response capabilities. These
problems were not simply the failure of particular places or leaders to be ready for disaster but rather an
indication of more fundamental issues. These must be addressed if the country is to be ready for serious
challenges that may lay ahead, whether severe natural disasters, outbreaks of emergent infectious disease,
or renewed terrorist attacks
