One year and a $49,000 study later, things still seem a little unsettled and a bit murky with our area&8217;s emergency disaster plan.

Some local leaders have fussed and feuded &8212; mostly behind closed doors &8212; over the viability of our current plan, the persons responsible and who will stand up to &8220;right the wrongs&8221; within the plan.

Others have argued that nitpicking the plan is a bit misguided and motivated more by disagreement and power than by righting a wrong. The &8220;wrong&8221; does not exist, they argue.

From our perspective, we believe our area did much better than most in how our community handled the onslaught of evacuees last year in the days after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

We may not have had the most up-to-date, state-of-the-art emergency management plan, but our people certainly did a bang-up job moving into action and getting things done.

Unfortunately, the feelings of frustration and disagreement over what needs to be changed in the plan haven&8217;t been constructive; they&8217;ve been divisive.

Bring up the subject of what to do or not to do with our emergency plan and you might need to be prepared for a fight.

We&8217;ve bought a fancy study, but what we need first is simple communication.