On the lack of government response to Katrina
September 3rd, 2005I remember a year ago listening on NPR to a man explain exactly how and why New Orleans was vulnerable to a direct hit or near direct hit from a hurricane. He explained the importance of the levees, their weaknesses, the likelihood of devastating floods. He painted a bleak picture with impeccable logic. That man on NPR talked about what could be done, what had to be done, to avoid the risk.
Alot of people are pointing out the Bush administration, rather than expand the funding for such protection, cut it (see Newsweek; compare with FactCheck.org). Those with the knowledge, but not the resources, were unable to convince the gatekeepers of the resources.
New Orleans officials are saying FEMA isn’t present. FEMA says it doesn’t move in when people are shooting at them. The military wasn’t set to go in immediately. You could say that this disaster was unprecedented, and thus hard to plan for.
But we already had 9-11. What is the Department of Homeland Security for, if not to prevent and if necessary coordinate responses to disasters? If the disaster was completely unforeseen, then the question would be how to foresee better. But with both 9-11 and Katrina, the risk was foreseen by someone. A novelist, a French investigator, an FBI agent, knew terrorists might crash planes into buildings. That man on NPR and the Army Corps of Engineers pointed out the risk of a powerful hurricane to New Orleans.
There are people with the knowledge in both instances. But they can’t get the attention and dedication of those with the resources. And it’s happened in two major crises now. That points not to a problem of knowledge, or of resources, but of the system by which the resources are attached to the knowledge. It’s a problem in the system, not just the planning for one crisis.
Update, 9/6/05: “Governments at all levels failed,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said at the Capitol. She announced that the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee would hold hearings, adding, “It is difficult to understand the lack of preparedness and the ineffective initial response to a disaster that had been predicted for years, and for which specific, dire warnings had been given for days.”
Update, 9/13/05: Newsweek has a good preliminary review of the federal, state and local lack of response to Katrina.
September 4th, 2005 at 12:48 am
Some in Houston have started calling the Astrodome “Bushville.”
September 6th, 2005 at 10:36 pm
it’s clear that funding was dismally insufficient, and the whole ‘what they wanted to build, which we didn’t fund, wouldn’t have helped anyway so it’s not our fault’ is kind of a horrifying defense. i suppose the bigger issue now is exactly what efforts were made for the pre-hurricane evacuation. it seems like a lot of the people who didn’t leave are the poorest of the poor, so probably wouldn’t have access to tv/internet/cars/a place to go. does anyone know if free transportation was made available?
i certainly hope they get their act together for san francisco.