Hurrican Katrina - Essay Example

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, we have all become keenly aware that large scale national disasters require an immediate and massive mobilization of adequate rescue and relief efforts, 2) that we are ill-prepared for the urgent response required in such situations, and 3) that it can be very difficult to make a clear-headed diagnosis of such a problem in a climate of raw public outrage versus political double talk and posturing. It is equally obvious that good answers that provide a better response to our next national disaster are a matter of the utmost necessity. What is less obvious is where the breakdown occurred after Katrina and who is to blame for it. The American public doesnt need anyones head on a chopping block, but we do need clear answers that will make for better procedures in the future. The answers can be found with adequate investigation, and they do lie near the top of our political structure. According to a CNN poll, "When asked to rate the performance of federal government in responding to the hurricane, 36 percent said "good" or "very good" while 63 percent said "poor" or "very poor." Given the facts, its hard to imagine that the 36 percent are other than Fox News fans, staunch Republicans, and those who live nowhere near the affected region. Robin Lovin, an ethics professor from Southern Methodist University in Dallas Texas, told Scotlands Daily Record, "Bush, Congress, the mayor - each of them are symptoms of a bigger problem, that we dont have accountability for disasters or challenges of this scale. Thats all the public wants in trying times - accountability ... Lovin added that its too convenient to blame one branch of government when they are all, at some level, failing people" ("God Help Them"). Lovins sentiments seem liberal and noble on the surface. We do have a human need to assign blame in "trying times," real accountability does seem lacking at multiple levels of our government, and we shouldnt go on a witch hunt to appease public outrage by scapegoating one person or one department of government, when the culpability is much more diffuse. This is certainly a moral sentiment, and an appropriate stance to take in the absence of compelling facts to the contrary. However, facts to the contrary can be found. And the culpability in this matter is not equally shared. The United States government has known for decades that large scale natural disasters necessarily go beyond the response capabilities of state and local authorities. According to the Fort Worth Star Telegram, it is likewise well-known, by our top disaster planning experts, that a quick mobilization of the United States active military is the only adequate response in such disasters.("Feds rethinking handling of Katrina"). Could anyone really look New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin in the face and say, "The Federal response was too little and too late, but you are equally culpable in this calamity." Not only was Ray Nagin an immediate victim of this natural disaster, along with first response police and fire departments and quite simply any native of the region, but he also does not command the United States military. As the article from Knight Ridder News Services makes clear, President Bush and Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff do have such powers in time of national crisis. According to the article: Two days after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, President Bush went on national television to announce a massive federal rescue and relief effort. But orders to move didnt reach key active military units for another three days. Once they received them, it took just eight hours for 3,600 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C., to be on the ground in Louisiana and Mississippi with search-and-rescue helicopters. Another 2,500 troops soon followed from the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood. One wonders how many lives might have been saved without this delay of three days. Also, what sort of bureaucratic red tape could begin to account for such a delay. The article goes on to say: The delay this time in tapping the troops, helicopters, trucks, generators, communications and other resources of the 1st Cavalry and the 82nd Airborne is the latest example of how the federal response to Katrina lacked organization and leadership. And it raises further questions about the governments ability to rapidly mobilize the active-duty military now that FEMA has been absorbed into the massive, terrorism-focused Department of Homeland Security. (Brown, et al. Sept. 17, 2005) This suggests that our Federal Bureaucracy has simply become too cumbersome to handle a national emergency. The post 9/11 efforts to enhance national security have tended to create a bureaucratic bottleneck instead. Its interesting that FEMA director Michael Brown has taken so much flack from this letdown that he was forced to resign, yet Chertoff has scarcely been mentioned. According to another article from Knight Ridder News Services -- this one coming from their Washington Bureau, dated September 14 -- The federal official with the power to mobilize a massive federal response to Hurricane Katrina was Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, not the former FEMA chief who was relieved of his duties and resigned earlier this week, federal documents reviewed by Knight Ridder show. Even before the storm struck the Gulf Coast, Chertoff could have ordered federal agencies into action without any request from state or local officials. Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown had only limited authority to do so until about 36 hours after the storm hit, when Chertoff designated him as the "principal federal official" in charge of the storm. (Landay, et al. Sept. 14, 2005) This sounds like some last minute, good old fashioned "passing of the buck" in a climate of uncertainty regarding who held proper authority for authorizing immediate action in a national calamity that certainly demanded such action from the federal level, but did not receive it. Perhaps one recommendation for avoiding a repeat performance of this lamentable breakdown in the future would be a separation of FEMA from the still unproven Homeland Security Agency. A capacity for the FEMA director to call upon the president or even the Department of Defense, directly, and without waiting for approval from another agency, could lend itself to the proper expediency in a time of crisis. Works Cited Brown, Drew, Seth Borenstein and Alison Young. "Feds Rethinking Handling of Katrina," Knight Ridder News Services. Posted 17 Sept. Online retrieval from Fort Worth Star-Telegram on 22 Sept. 2005. CNN Poll from CNN.com Wednesday Sept. 7, 2005 (Posted 4:45 pm) "God Help Them; because the US government havent." Scotlands Daily Record 3 Sept. 2005. Online retrieval from on 22 Sept. 2005. Landay, Jonathon S., Alison Young and Shannon McCaffrey "Chertoff Delayed Federal Response, memo shows," Knight Ridder News Services 14 Sept. Online retrieval through LexisNexis on 22 Sept. 2005. Read More