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September 12, 2005
Anatomy of a Failure
While turmoil continues in those areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina, the search for what went wrong has already begun.
To be sure, nature did the bulk of the damage to the central Gulf Coast, but human error has unquestionably added manifold suffering, and very likely deaths, to this tragic situation.
Yesterday's Times takes a thorough first cut at analyzing government reposnse, or lack thereof.
One awful fact stands out: Despite widespread knowledge of numerous government and press reports and warnings about the dangers of a large hurricane striking New Orleans, the badly needed evacuation and disaster management plans for the city remained unfinished when Katrina struck. Specifically, the transportation and law enforcement portions of the plan were incomplete, which proved deadly.
The piece also concludes that FEMA underestimated the storm, and was slowed by squabbling with state officials in Katrina's immediate aftermath.
But FEMA's greatest failure, according to former Bush administration Homeland Security official Richard Falkenrath, was its inability to anticipate that the state and local capabilities would be so badly compromised. This failure was perhaps a result of having FEMA run by inexperienced political appointees, rather than career emergency management professionals like James Lee Witt, who was widely praised for heading FEMA during the 1990s, and who has now been retained (tragically too late for many) to assist Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco.
Katrina's aftermath will be written as a sorry chapter in American history, with ample blame at a number of levels. But whatever one thinks of state and local response, the feds flunked this test badly. Given our concerns about possible future terrorist attacks, Americans should be worried.
Posted by houtopia at September 12, 2005 12:37 PM