Tuesday
September 6, 2005
KATRINA - THE REPORT CARD:
One of the worst natural disasters in American history is now
a week in the rear view mirror. We know a lot more now than we
did when it started, and we will undoubtedly learn a lot more
in the coming days, weeks, and months. Here is my take on the
players and their response, from the bottom up:
Mayor
Nagin: Honestly, I admire Nagin's intensity and understand
his frustration. It's too bad he didn't show the same sort of
urgency in ordering and organizing the evacuation last week, because
things might have turned out much different.
When you
know that the city you lead is 1) below sea-level and built to
withstand only a Category 3 storm and 2) is a very difficult place
to evacuate based on past history and 3) is relying on what you
yourself characterize as limited local resources to conduct such
an operation, there is no excuse to wait until less
than 24 hours to pull the trigger on ordering a mandatory
evacuation when a Category 5 storm is bearing down on you. None.
When all
is said and done I think we'll find that the greatest contributing
factor in this tragedy was Mayor Nagin's lack of urgency on the
front end and his inability to coordinate and execute an evacuation
plan (even one that now looks in hindsight to have been seriously
flawed) that got as many people out of New Orleans as possible.
Governor
Blanco: It's hard to find any redeeming qualities in
Blanco's conduct during this entire affair. I haven't seen any
reports on just how aggressively she mobilized state assets to
prepare for and to assist the evacuation effort before Katrina
struck, so perhaps details will emerge that will accrue to her
credit - though frankly I will be surprised if that turns out
to be true.
Since the
hurricane hit Blanco's response has been a case study in lack
of leadership; from projecting weakness and insecurity to squabbling
over turf. The Governor has done little to leave the impression
she has been either confident or competent in helping to manage
this crisis. Again, I suspect this is an impression that will
be confirmed by numerous examples once all the facts are in.
Michael
Brown: He's got to go. The bottom line is that as the
man in charge of coordinating federal relief efforts the results
produced on his watch were simply not good enough. Again, we don't
know all that went on behind the scenes so there may be a number
of mitigating factors, but from what we have seen in the press
Brown looks from the outset to have been extremely ineffective
if not downright confused some of the time.
The other
reason Brown should be fired is because he didn't belong as director
of FEMA in the first place. As everyone knows by now, Brown got
his original job as the General Counsel for FEMA because of
a personal connection with Joe Allbaugh. That's fine, because
at least Brown was qualified to hold that position. But lives
aren't at stake when you're FEMA's lawyer, they are when you're
FEMA's director. Joe Allbaugh bears a great deal of responsibility
for promoting Brown to deputy director and for (I assume) recommending
his appointment to director to President Bush.
President
Bush: When you finish sifting through all of the partisan
red herrings that have been thrown out to try and blame Bush for
this catastrophe (budget cuts to the Army Corps of Engineers,
budget cuts to and reorganization of FEMA, National Guard troops
in Iraq, wetlands policy, global warming policy, and on and on)
the President's main responsibility lies with the fact one of
the members of his administration looks to have done a poor job
of managing the federal government's portion of planning and responding
to this crisis.
As captain
of the team, Bush is responsible for his players and he should
have recognized sooner that Michael Brown was not getting the
job done.
Having said
that, it's worth noting that even a more competent, experienced
FEMA director wouldn't have been able to stop the flooding or
most likely to have foreseen the widespread looting and violence
that followed and caused such havoc with rescue efforts. In fact,
short of President Bush stepping in an using executive powers
to order the National Guard to forcibly evacuate New Orleans (something
I'm not sure is possible), a perfectly executed post-hurricane
relief plan under the circumstances in New Orleans would have
sped things up by maybe 24 hours. That's a lot of time in a crisis
relief situation and certainly would have saved a few lives, but
I'm not sure it would have drastically changed the dynamics of
what we saw unfolding in New Orleans last week.
Katrina really
was a perfect storm in that she struck a city that was extremely
vulnerable to flooding; a city with significant crime, drug, and
poverty issues that was effectively rendered lawless for three
days causing a complete social breakdown, and a city (and state)
government with a long and notorious tradition for corruption
and incompetence. All of the tragedy resulting from these things
was compounded by a less than perfect response by FEMA. -
T. Bevan 10:45 am Link
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