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08/31/2006: "The Blame Game, Part One"

A major tragedy is a conflicting time for a news junkie like me. While conscious of the human toll extracted by the event, the magnetic draw of the unfolding drama is inescapable.

Thus it was for Hurricane Katrina. The wall-to-wall media coverage those first few days made for an exquisite agony as I took in the unmatched disaster. Like everyone else who saw the endless images of people on roofs, bodies in the sun and water … water … water, I asked myself the one question that mattered – where is the response?

With the news crews ten deep in many places, there was no lack of open microphones or people to talk into them. And talk they did. Each had a different tale to tell, but they all conveyed the same message – someone is to blame for this.

As the waters subsided and the cleanup began, lots of effort went into the blame game. Certainly, there was enough to go around, and few who were associated with Katrina are blameless. But to me, the lion’s share of the blame for the tragedy goes to two groups of people.

The first is the politicians. The primary role of the government is to serve the people, and the people of New Orleans were poorly served by their government at all levels. As George Bush is fond of saying, “I take responsibility.” Well, taking responsibility sometimes means taking the blame, and the elected officials all deserve a share.

We'll talk about why that is after the jump.

New Orleans has existed where it is today for hundreds of years. During that time, two facts were plainly obvious to all – much of the city lies below sea level, and the city is a prime target for hurricanes. No one can pretend to think otherwise – particularly those elected to represent the area. Yet there was no significant plan in place for dealing with a hurricane bearing down on the region. Beyond all of the other mistakes, this is perhaps the most unforgivable, and blame must be shouldered by Mayor Nagin and his predecessors. Much has been made of the poverty level of many of the residents of those areas hardest hit, and the inability of many to mobilize the personal resources needed to evacuate. No one would be in a better position to understand and accommodate this need than the local officials, and their failure to provide an effective evacuation plan or initial response to the hurricane cost many of those they represent to lose their lives.

Even with the ineffective planning and response at the local level, much of the loss of life could have been prevented had there been a more effective response at the state and federal levels. The President’s hands-off management style betrayed him when he - and the people of the Gulf Coast - were forced to depend on the actions of Michael “Brownie” Brown, the head of FEMA and a Bush crony. Clearly, Brown was overmatched and as a result replaced, but it was too little, too late. In the first 72 hours, the in-fighting between Governor Blanco and President Bush, along with a “we’ll wait until we’re asked to help” attitude resulted in the ridiculous images of responders turned away for lack of proper paperwork and trailers sitting unused in Atlanta. In times of crisis, leadership is tested, and there was no leadership shown at all in those first critical hours.

To be fair, the federal response – once properly mobilized – was quite impressive. Hundreds of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft flooded into the area along with long convoys of trucks holding thousands of National Guardsmen. But the bureaucratic logjam that prevented a timely response meant that all those resources were left to search for bodies when they should have been there in time to rescue residents.

Clearly, the magnitude of the disaster overwhelmed the government’s ability to respond in a timely manner. I’m not sure anything would be different today, were another storm or similar event occur. At some point, things can get so big, so out of hand, that it’s just not reasonable to assume the government can always ride to the rescue. Sometimes, it comes down to the individual. We’ll talk about that next time.