Getting Ready For Hurricane Season

(CBS)  This column was written by CBS News Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith.

---

The hurricane forecasters at Colorado State will announce their educated guesses about the season to come today, and they'll say maybe this year won't be as bad as last. Maybe.

That can't come as much comfort to folks who live near America's Atlantic or Gulf Coasts.

Hurricane season is less than two months away and in a conversation with Jane Bullock today, the former chief of staff of FEMA, she told me that if anything, the federal government is less prepared now than they were a year ago.

Recent divisions of labor, the very fact that the government can't find anyone to replace Mike Brown are signs, she said, that the system is still broken.

Meanwhile the cleanup continues in Katrinaville — more debris than the World Trade Center site and Hurricane Andrew combined, and they're still not close to finishing.

And did you hear, the Corps of Engineers is proudly rebuilding New Orleans levees, but not high enough so anyone inside them can buy flood insurance?

---

Harry's daily commentary can be heard on many CBS Radio News affiliates across the country.
By Harry Smith