From Disaster to Blame: Katrina is a Case Study in how NOT to run the Federal Government

I'm not going to harp on the ridiculous events of Sunday too much. Bottom line, people get victimized by violent crime all the time and our number was up. It won't taint my view of London. Every city has bad areas or street thugs that invade reasonably good areas; London is not unique in that way. Instead, I'll count my blessings that we escaped with little more than a few bruises and a strong lesson of wariness. Hopefully, those goons will get theirs eventually.

Anyway, there were some comments to the post about the hurricane the other day that were well thought out, even if I ultimately disagree on a couple of main points.

BLAME THE FEDS, NOT THE STATE

1. Jurisdiction: FEMA has the statutory authority under Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, PL 100-707, signed into law on November 23, 1988 to coordinate the federal response to "national emergencies". Katrina constitutes a "national emergency" for a variety of reasons including the size, scope, and economic impact of the hurricane. In that situation, FEMA has jurisdiction to coordinate the emergency response. Unfortunately, the process of folding FEMA into the Department of Homeland Security has emasculated the Agency to the point that it's almost impossible for it to perform its mission, as we all saw so graphically.

2. Spinning Legal Hurdles: The Bush administration has claimed (as reported by the Washington Post and Newsweek) that Louisiana never requested federal assistance which is why the response took so long. Aside from the fact that the FedGov doesn't actually need a request to offer assistance and perhaps even to provide it in crisis situations (I don't know the law on that one), the Bush claim is factually inaccurate. The Bush admin's claim that the Governor of Louisiana's reluctance to declare a State of Emergency and request Federal help which explains the slow response is frustrated to the point of total collapse by the simple fact that Governor Blanco declared a State of Emergency and requested Federal assistance before Katrina struck in this letter that she sent to Bush on August 28 (who happened not to get it because he was on vacation, again). I'm sure the Washington Post "correction" issued the following day stung just a bit.

3. This is what happens when you de-fund disaster preparedness measures: This is an easy point to make because there's plenty of documentation. Instead of belaboring it, I'll sum up the basics. Louisiana, and New Orleans in particular, have continually requested Federal Pre-Disaster Mitigation funds. Prior to this administration, they usually got them. That's why they had a levee system that could withstand Category 3 storms. But, the funds targeted for the region were gutted because it wasn't deemed a significant risk by the money people. The Chicago Tribune has more. As does the Clarion-Ledger (2002). Readers of those articles will notice that a Republican who was appointed as Assistant Secretary of the Army was sacked by Bush for speaking out against for the budget cuts that left New Orleans defenseless. And just for fun, here's one about how Bush gutted FEMA creating a bureaucratic nightmare leaving America defenseless. (The Chicago Tribune one is probably the best for those with limited time.)

Of course, major hurricanes were a significant risk and everyone knew about it, including FEMA who specifically game planned for this possibility. Readers of the National Geographic article will notice the lengthy debate about this whole issue that I prefer not to go into.

4. How, exactly, is a 1500 person police force supposed to forcibly evacuate 20,000 people that either refused to flee New Orleans or were unable to flee? Don't blame the city. They got the vast majority of people out. No matter how tragic the story, they did what they could.

Here's the bottom line: Long before this disaster ever crept into the equation, the Federal Government abandoned New Orleans with a minimum amount of protection from severe storms because they judged that a Category 5 Storm was unlikely and too expensive to justify. Later, when the doomsday scenario unfolded, our Federal Government was asleep on a couch somewhere in Texas. The response trickled out of Washington, people suffered and died, and the ruling political party circled the wagons and blamed everyone else for a situation that they contributed to. That's not just negligence, it's gross incompetence.

In 2001 people seemed willing to forgive Prez Bush for listening to that story about the goat (probably because it was so fascinating) because 9/11 was so shocking, it unfolded with no warning, and people seemed willing to believe that the President would be effected by it just like we all were. However, in 2005, there were only about 14 days of warning, no preparation from the FedGov (or even pre-positioning of troops, ships, supplies, etc), and a bureaucratic nightmare that could have been avoided had FEMA been run properly and kept separate as an independent organization.

I'll end this little rant with a poignant thought from my brother-in-law: What if this had been a terrorist attack?