WASHINGTON — Katrina's deadly rampage had at least one beneficial effect, disaster experts said Sunday: It ensured that government agencies took the next big storm, Hurricane Rita, very seriously.
This time, the federal government dispatched troops sooner, sent supplies earlier and coordinated more smoothly with local authorities. The consensus is that the response helped minimize the loss of life from a storm that was damaging, though less powerful than Katrina.
Though complaints continued Sunday about the need for better evacuation planning -- in the frantic exodus from Houston, there was an epic traffic jam and 23 seniors were killed in a bus fire -- even officials who criticized the federal government after Katrina were praising the reaction to Rita.
With lessons learned from both hurricanes, state and local officials stressed the need for better evacuation plans. Military commanders argued for tighter coordination. And President Bush raised the possibility of placing the Pentagon in charge of responding to the biggest natural disasters.
In a briefing for the president Sunday in San Antonio, Air Force Maj. Gen. John White, overseeing the storm area, called for development of a national disaster rescue plan to clarify the roles of the various agencies. Under the current system, five helicopters could arrive to rescue one storm victim.
"We're not maximizing the use of our forces to the best efficiency," White told Bush in a briefing at Randolph Air Force Base. "Certainly, that was a train wreck that we saw in New Orleans."
Bush, who returned to Washington after visits to Texas and Louisiana, stressed again that he and Congress would be looking at whether to give the Pentagon a more prominent role in domestic disasters.
"Is there a natural disaster of a certain size that would then enable the Defense Department to become the lead agency in coordinating and leading the response effort? That's going to be a very important consideration for Congress to think about," Bush said, expanding on an idea raised in a speech in New Orleans this month.
R. David Paulison, acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said the early and thorough evacuations in Texas and Louisiana made all the difference.
"The coordination and smooth preparation for this hurricane has been absolutely phenomenal," said Paulison, who was brought in after the resignation of Michael D. Brown, who was widely criticized over the federal response to Katrina.
