WASHINGTON — The vast majority of America's states, cities and territories still are far from ready for terrorist attacks, huge natural disasters or other wide-reaching emergencies, according to an analysis by the Homeland Security Department released yesterday.

Only 10 states were rated in a Homeland Security Department scorecard as having sufficient disaster response plans. Hawai'i's plan, like that of most states, was rated as partly sufficient.

"Frankly, we just have not in this country put the premium on our level of catastrophe planning that is necessary to be ready for those wide-scale events," Homeland Security Undersecretary George Foresman told reporters yesterday.

City and state plans for emergencies such as localized fires, floods and tornadoes "are good, they're robust," Foresman said.

But plans for catastrophes "are not going to support us as they should," Foresman said.

For example, New Orleans is still woefully unprepared for catastrophes 10 months after Hurricane Katrina, and the two areas attacked on 9/11 don't meet all guidelines for responding to major disasters, a federal security analysis concluded yesterday.

President Bush ordered the review of emergency response plans in a visit to New Orleans last Sept. 15, weeks after Katrina ravaged the city. It is based on a complicated scorecard for each of the 50 states, 75 major cities and six U.S. territories that rates plans for evacuations, medical care, sheltering of victims, public alerts and other emergency priorities.

The tepid ratings gave fodder to state and local officials who have hammered Homeland Security for cutting their emergency response funding. And the ratings may oversimplify security gaps that can't be measured in a one-size-fits-all formula.

"You really have to look at each state individually and how they're prepared for the emergencies that their experts anticipate," said Jeff Welsh, spokesman for Maryland's emergency management agency. "It's a snapshot of the country as a whole, and to have an honest, realistic assessment of a single state you have to look at that single state."

DIFFERENT CHALLENGES

Maj. Gen. Robert Lee, director of Hawai'i's state Civil Defense, was among those questioning the national standard, since it does not take into account unique state characteristics.

For instance, as an island state, Hawai'i is always going to score low on mass evacuation plans, Lee said.

"In Hawai'i, you can't evacuate 50 to 60 percent of your population," he said.

The state's priority will be to get tourists and those who need medical care out, then move everyone else to safe places in the islands.

"We've been hammering on shelters and a safe room in your own home," he said.

He noted that mass evacuation isn't the priority on other islands either, including Guam, which is vulnerable to typhoons.

"They don't evacuate. They just hunker down," he said.

Lee, who is out of town and has not seen the report, expects that Hawai'i scored well in regard to emergency communications.

"I think we're a lot better than many states, with our very robust and redundant communication system," he said.

Foresman said the results highlight disparate and disconnected emergency plans in the absence of national preparedness standards.

"This is not something that is a grand surprise — it has simply put documented numbers on what we intuitively knew in the post-9/11 era," he said.

10 RANK 'SUFFICIENT'

Bright spots in the analysis were 10 states with response plans that Homeland Security deemed "sufficient" — the highest rating. Those states are Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New York, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Vermont.

The analysis also found that 18 hurricane-prone states, from Maine to Texas, appeared to be better prepared for disasters than the rest of the country.

Florida, accustomed to being whipped with hurricane winds, was the only state assessed as ready in all nine categories of catastrophe planning. But state emergency manager Craig Fugate said he wasn't that interested in the rankings.

"All this is nice, but the bottom line is we have to continue to strive to get better," Fugate said. "Is it going to change anything that we're doing? No."

By comparison, Louisiana's plans were deemed "not sufficient" as the state continues to grapple with devastation from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Similarly, New Orleans' plan received the lowest ranking possible, with only 4 percent of preparedness measures meeting federal standards first outlined in this scorecard.

New Orleans emergency preparedness director Chief Joseph Matthews said the city has been working with Homeland Security to develop "a sound evacuation plan." The city learned "real-time lessons as a result of Hurricane Katrina, and we are working hard to put those into practice," Matthews said in a statement.

NEW YORK, WASHINGTON

In New York and Washington, D.C., the analysis found lukewarm results.

The majority of the preparations for both cities were described as only partially sufficient by the department. Those ratings came two weeks after top New York and Washington officials complained bitterly that Homeland Security cut their federal aid for emergency responders this year.

Foresman said there was no connection between the emergency plan analysis and the department's grants.

But he noted that while Homeland Security has sent $18 billion to spur state and local preparedness since 9/11, "very little of it has gone to planning, training and exercise."

The scorecard was compiled by teams of former state and local emergency response directors over six months.