The response to Hurricane Katrina was highly criticized due to failure of attention from the government on a national level. Within the days after the hurricane hit, citizens stepped in with their own efforts involving volunteer work and immediate response from locals alone, rescuing minorities, and those not able to evacuate in times of high vulnerability. The government did not pay attention to minorities during their time of dire need for attention, with no preparation to back them up.
Failure of Preparation
Hurricane Pam was a catastrophic disaster simulation that was ordered by FEMA to prepare better in case an actual hurricane hit. In May 2004 IEM (Innovative Emergency Management Inc.) was given 0.5 million dollars by FEMA to create this simulation. This hurricane simulation was a category three with some category four characteristics. The virtual storm sustained winds of 120 mph, up to 20 inches of rain in parts of Southeast Louisiana, and storm surges that topped the levees and flooded New Orleans. The simulation focused on 13 parishes in Southeast Louisiana over a period of five days.
The purpose of hurricane Pam was to develop a plan on how to respond to a situation like that one, to show them how to prepare for an event like this one. It also showed the weaknesses that NOLA had and what they had to work on in case this actually happened. The simulation showed that NOLA was very unprepared and as a result thousands of people would die and Southeast Louisiana would be uninhabitable for a year afterwards.
The purpose of hurricane Pam was to develop a plan on how to respond to a situation like that one, to show them how to prepare for an event like this one. It also showed the weaknesses that NOLA had and what they had to work on in case this actually happened. The simulation showed that NOLA was very unprepared and as a result thousands of people would die and Southeast Louisiana would be uninhabitable for a year afterwards.
The full report given after the simulation includes specific recommendations for how to prepare for a storm like this like, diagrams for: makeshift loading docks to distribute water, ice, and food to storm victims and color-coded to show where pallets, traffic cones and trash bins will be placed. Other action plans about, debris removal, sheltering, search and rescue were also developed. The report however was less specific in some places; for example, it does not identify what hospitals or airports would be used. Although Katrina and Pam were different hurricanes, one virtual and the other real, they had some similarities.
What went wrong?
City
Unused school buses in the city of New Orleans.
Mayor Ray Nagin didn’t execute the New Orleans disaster plan, which “called for the use of the city’s school buses in evacuating residents unable to leave on their own. The city never deployed these buses.” There could’ve been evacuations before the storm hit, potentially saving many lives. The reason that Nagin gave for not deploying the buses was FEMA said that they didn’t have air conditioning so the heat could’ve caused heat stroke. Apparently, FEMA also said that they would provide the city with better busses, which never came. Another mysterious lack of evacuation occurred with Amtrak trains. On August 27th, before the storm hit, hours after the last scheduled train left NOLA, Amtrak offered to fit hundreds of passengers into a train they were already sending out of the city to move equipment on. The city declined the offer. President Bush said that the first priority was saving lives. The New Orleans government decided that that was true, except for looters. They adopted a zero tolerance policy for looters, even when they were looting for food, water, clothes, and other essential supplies, saying that they could find them elsewhere. The troops were told that they were allowed to shoot and kill looters. Also, the city government “attempted to manage the disaster from a hotel ballroom with inadequate backup communications plans instead of a properly staffed Emergency Operations Center.” They lost phone service and it became hard to communicate what they needed.
Mayor Ray Nagin, Governor Kathleen Blanco, and President Bush in New Orleans.
State
Governor Blanco with Bush.
Governor Blanco made a request for additional troops however “the necessary formal request through the federal National Guard Bureau was not made until Wednesday, a full two days after the hurricane hit and when much of the city was already under water.” According to Blanco, she was unaware of the amount of troops they needed and what type. FEMA has said that Blanco didn’t submit her request for help early enough, and while she did send Bush requests for shelter and provisions, she didn't ask for help with evacuations. Also, “Blanco thought city officials were taking care of the evacuation in accord with the city’s emergency plan.” Obviously, this wasn’t happening. She also didn't issue a mandatory evacuation until she got confirmation from Bush, even though his confirmation wasn’t necessary in that process. Many surrounding parishes were left out of the original declaration of emergency made by Bush, and they were only included on the declaration dated August 29th. It turns out that this is because that Blanco had not included these parishes at all in her initial request for aid.
Nagin and Blanco at a press conference before the mandatory evacuation was ordered.
Federal
People outside of the Superdome.
Bush signed $10.5 billion of relief aid four days after the hurricane hit the city of New Orleans. Terry Ebbert, New Orleans’ emergency operations chief “blamed the inadequate response on [FEMA]. ‘This is not a FEMA operation. I haven’t seen a single FEMA guy...FEMA has been here three days, yet there is no command and control.’” It also seems that other organizations outside the area were slowed in their effort to help NOLA. Another major fault by FEMA was that they “sent hundreds of firefighters who had volunteered to help rescue victims to Atlanta for 2 days of training classes on topics including sexual harassment and the history of FEMA.” According to Micheal Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security, “‘the perfect storm of combination of catastrophes exceeded the foresight of the planners.’” This is definitely an interesting statement, because it seems that the levee breach was anticipated. Chertoff also waited 36 hours to declare Katrina an incident of national significance. This directly contradicts the previously agreed on National Response Plan. Also, there were “‘11,000 National Guard personnel from Louisiana of whom about 3,000 [were] in Iraq with most of the heavy equipment. This included generators and high-water and other vehicles which could assist with the rescue effort.’” Overall, the FEMA efforts were just inexplicably unorganized. A prime example of such unorganization is when a field hospital was established and FEMA sent supplies, they were all designed against chemical attacks, “including drugs such as Cipro, which is designed for use against anthrax.” This is what FEMA was told to do, or, at least, “‘that’s what it says in the book,’” according to a Baton Rouge official.
Presidential
President Bush flying over New Orleans on his way back from his vacation.
Transcripts show that Bush, Nagin, and Blanco were warned that the levees might overflow before the storm hit. A major point of criticism was the fact that he was on vacation and didn’t return to DC until Wednesday morning. On the way back, he flew over NOLA, saving that “‘It’s totally wiped out. It’s devastating, it’s got to be doubly devastating on the ground.’” It seems very contradictory to say that it was such a devastating event when his reaction was so delayed. In his State of the Union Address in 2006, Bush says that the federal government had committed $85 billion to New Orleans. The damages have been estimated to weigh in at about $150 billion. By September 2nd, 2005, Bush had given $10.5 billion, after acknowledging that his original aid had not been enough. In that speech, “Bush did not mention any human suffering caused by the storm or its aftermath, and did not acknowledge any shortcomings in his administration’s response.”
Citizen Rescue Efforts
The efforts provided to rescue flood victims were limited, overall local foundations did a much larger portion of immediate relief than outside government response to the issue. The Cajun Navy, a citizen-radio orgainzed group of volunteers as well as Louisiana locals provided support with no bias towards class or economic status. The national response was much different, in the sense that the action was not at all immediate nor did it provide unbiased help. “Further on, we come to the residence of a man who was stranded and to whom “Zeitoun brought food and water every day while he still had his canoe and his liberty” (thegaurdian.com) And for both of the helpers, if they could not immediately respond they tried to help by providing resources like food and clean water. Many of the residents whom could not leave or did not have any sort of acess to a vehicle, were left stranded and had to fend for themselves during the storm with effects that were extremely unexpected.
The nation was to blame for a lot of the response, because of the way that those not responsible took on so much of the work in comparison. While locals were jumping in with their best efforts, the governments complete unpreparedness left, “anger towards officials at local and national level” (thegaurdian.com) The reach was extremely difficult even for communities nearby, and victims were happy to allow any help at all. "How eager they were to trust people they didn't even know," Roberts said. "But they were just so grateful that someone cared about them."(cbsnews.com) The Cajun navy's role was so important to the rescue of victims, and even if some people were in a dangerous place, they wanted to rescue them regardless, for example there were several seminarians and priests in an area surrounded by crime, “Thanks for not listening to those people who said don't go in there," Davis said.” (cbsnews.com) the reason that both the locals, the Louisiana community victims themselves and the Cajun Navy were so incredibly important is because of the non biased attention that was given to each victim able to be helped in the week of direct suffering, until national attention was given.
The nation was to blame for a lot of the response, because of the way that those not responsible took on so much of the work in comparison. While locals were jumping in with their best efforts, the governments complete unpreparedness left, “anger towards officials at local and national level” (thegaurdian.com) The reach was extremely difficult even for communities nearby, and victims were happy to allow any help at all. "How eager they were to trust people they didn't even know," Roberts said. "But they were just so grateful that someone cared about them."(cbsnews.com) The Cajun navy's role was so important to the rescue of victims, and even if some people were in a dangerous place, they wanted to rescue them regardless, for example there were several seminarians and priests in an area surrounded by crime, “Thanks for not listening to those people who said don't go in there," Davis said.” (cbsnews.com) the reason that both the locals, the Louisiana community victims themselves and the Cajun Navy were so incredibly important is because of the non biased attention that was given to each victim able to be helped in the week of direct suffering, until national attention was given.
Abdulrahman Zeitoun and his wife, after katrina took place. During this time many of those he rescued showed them his gratitude.
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Two men rowing during katrina to survive.
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Race played a Role in Response to Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a horrible disaster and greatly affected African Americans in a negative way. Statistics show that race played a big role in hurricane Katrina. For instance, in a article it stated that 68% of deaths were African American, and the places that had the highest African American population had the most deaths. This tells us that the places with the highest African American population had the most death, additionally had no help from the government. In addition to this African Americans who lost their homes in Katrina had to rely on welfare and social security. Adding to this statement a location in New Orleans with a 3rd living in poverty, the location was 98% flooded. This neighborhood also had a high population of African Americans meaning that the African Americans were also the most vulnerable to the hurricane in the first place. The news also affected racism, article titles often having words that made African Americans look bad. For example certain articles white people would be “finding” food the word find meaning that the food was somewhere not touched. When African Americans found food instead of finding it was called looting,looting meaning as if the food was stolen and or taken. Additionally the awful response the Bush administration took was also because of the race factor. It stated in an article about Katrina that, President Bush did not care about the votes of African Americans, this can relate to why he didn't take action to save African Americans in the first place. The article also stated that, Bush along with his fellow Republicans don't respond out of instinct to help low income African American families meaning they don't really care. Adding on this the Bush administration could have additionally not helped New Orleans because it is not a place where it would benefit them.
All Sources Used
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/storm/etc/cron.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Hurricane_Katrina
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/aug/17/hurricane-katrina-timeline
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/black-people-loot-food-wh_b_6614
https://www.cbpp.org/research/essential-facts-about-the-victims-of-hurricane-katrina
http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/katrina/hurricanepam.pdf
https://www.coursehero.com/file/p3jr955/The-purpose-of-the-Hurricane-Pam-exercises-was-to-prepare-Louisiana-and-the/
https://nrc.gov/docs/ML1209/ML12093A081.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_preparedness_in_New_Orleans#Hurricane_Pam_exercise
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/remembering-the-cajun-navy-10-years-after-hurricane-katrina/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/mar/11/dave-eggers-zeitoun-hurricane-katrina
https://www.democracynow.org/2006/8/28/common_ground_collective_continues_to_bring
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/08/28/fema-trailers-brought-shelter-problems-katrina-victims/71342988/
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2005/09/how-race-shaped-bush-s-response-to-katrina.html