Unfortunately, the
Washington Post's
editorial board can't be trusted to analyze a situation even halfway accurately. Clearly they're drinking the Bushco kool-aid: "So far, the federal government's immediate response to the destruction of one of the nation's most historic cities does seem commensurate with the scale of the disaster."
Commensurate with the scale of the disaster? Are they joking? Honestly, I thought it was satire when I first read it.
But to effectively judge the Post's editorial endorsement of the federal emergency response, I dedided first to recap what happened before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina, including a little FEMA background. So I gave a chronology a shot first, because it's gotten to be so overwhelming that I don't have an accurate sense of the timing.
FEMA, in a 2001 study, warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was
one of the three most likely disasters in the United States.
Despite this, the Bush administration has repeatedly cut funding for Louisiana levee and pumping station construction and maintenance. By 2003, funding for the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA (created in 1995 after a flood killed 6 people), had virtually dried up, as moneys were shifted to the war in Iraq. The funding for the levee and pumping station work has been cut a total of 44.2% since 2001, forcing the Army Corps of Engineers for the New Orleans district into a hiring freeze in 2005.
In summer 2004, FEMA participated in a tabletop exercise concerning a fictional 'Hurricane Pam', a hurricane involving "120 mph winds, a massive storm surge, 20 feet of water in the city, 80 percent of buildings damaged, refugees on rooftops, possibly gun violence that would slow the rescue". The exercise was run by Ivan Van Heerden, a hurricane researcher at LSU.
On Thursday, 25 August, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Florida as a Category One hurricane. On leaving Florida, Katrina headed into the Gulf of Mexico and began to strengthen.
On Friday, 26 August, Katrina was predicted to strengthen after leaving Florida, and predicted to hit the Mississippi or Louisiana coast on Sunday or Monday.
On Friday, 26 August, Louisiana's and Mississippi's governors declared states of emergency in anticipation of Katrina making landfall. Evacuations were expected to begin in Mississippi on Saturday afternoon for coastal residents. New Orleans was noted as being "of particular concern" because it's surrounded by water on 3 sides. Governor Blanco (LA) stated that "very well-coordinated evacuations" would be carried out in the event Katrina became a direct threat to Louisiana residents.
On Sunday, 28 August, FEMA was reported as having sent teams to both Mississippi and Louisiana in anticipation of Katrina's landfall. At 2 a.m. on Sunday, Katrina was a Category 4 storm.
On Sunday, 28 August, Katrina hit Category 5 and Michael Brown, FEMA's Director, was quoted as saying: "We've done a lot of planning for a hurricane striking New Orleans because of New Orleans lying below sea level."
On Sunday, 28 August, Mayor Nagin declared a state of emergency for the city and ordered a mandatory evacuation for New Orleans, emphasizing the seriousness of the storm and noting that the city's shelters should be used only as last resorts. Governor Blanco stated that "[t]here may be intense flooding that will be not in our control which would be ultimately the most dangerous situation that many of our people could face."
By 11:00am CDT, the mayor of New Orleans had exempted tourists staying in hotels from the mandatory evacuation order, because airlines had already cancelled all flights out of New Orleans". Governor Blanco later said that the airlines' action stranded a great many people in New Orleans:
But we know that more people could have gotten out, especially those visitors who were in New Orleans for business or for conferences or for vacations...There was very little activity on Sunday morning. It was safe flying out of here. We were very disappointed to hear about all the flight cancellations.
That same day, 28 August 2005,
Governor Blanco requested disaster aid of the President, describing Katrina as a "Category V Hurricane approach[ing] our coast south of New Orleans." The request detailed needed individual assistance, crisis counseling, and public assistance, and direct federal assistance (for shelters, generators, evacuation, and debris removal). It explained that evacuations had begun and that some shelters had been opened and others were on standby across the state (depending on location). The governor specifically stated in her letter that she was requesting
direct Federal assistance for work and services to save lives and protect property
and added that State and local governments would not be able to handle the job alone.
An estimated 3500 Louisiana National Guard (LNG)troops were on hand to assist with "housing, security, power generation, food distribution and debris removal."
An estimated 134,000 of New Orleans' citizens have no transportation (Times-Picayune, via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution). Mayor Ray Nagin, local Red Cross Executive Director Kay Wilkins and City Council President Oliver Thomas all made statements to that effect earlier this summer. It was clear from what they said that New Orleans does not have the resources to evacuate those people from the city. It
was just as clear that 134,000 people "were very likely to end up in dire circumstances or even die" because they could not be evacuated."
Tens of thousands of those people, who could not evacuate the city, herded into the Superdome, which untested as a shelter for "the big one."
Citizens without cars were not the only people who remained in the city. Any number of people crowded into a number of smaller shelters, similarly likely to be at or below sea level. An undetermined number of tourists, due to cancelled flights and lack of transportation, remained in hotels around the city. They were advised to stay about the third floor of their hotels and stay away from windows. Any number of people were effectively trapped in hospitals around the city, many of them in desperate need of continuous medical care. Any number of people had no transportation and therefore could not leave the city per the evacuation plan, which heavily emphasized the driving of a car to get away. Any number of people who were unwell and therefore unable to leave their houses even for the Superdome, stayed in their houses. Any number of family members determined to stay with them to take care of them. In all, nearly a 100,000 people were estimated to have remained in the city during the hurricane.
Hurricane Katrina made landfall south of NOLA early Monday morning, and headed north and east. It left behind utter devastation in many parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
In New Orleans alone, whole neighborhoods along the lakeshore were inundated, with water up to the rooflines of houses. 370,000 people in Southern Louisiana were without power after Katrina left the state. Untold numbers of people were stranded in their homes, on rooftops, in shelters, hotels, apartment buildings, and office buildings. The mayor of New Orleans estimated that 80% of the city had evacuated. As the pre-Katrina population of the city was 485,000, approximately 97,000 people were left trying to survive in the midst of the rising floodwaters. Nearly 100,000 people, as of Monday afternoon, were dealing with a situation in which they had limited supplies of drinkable water, of food, and most importantly, of time before their chances for survival disappeared altogether.
...continued in part II...