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Stephen Forchielli
Dr. Tillman
Eng 102
Hurricane Katrina: Who’s to Blame?
Michael Homan is a long time New Orleanian and suffered through the disaster that was
Hurricane Katrina. Homan writes:
I have witnessed and experienced some pretty awful things over the past week. I saw
dozens of dead bodies floating in toxic waters. I heard about invalid elderly humans
dying in attics and hospitals believing that the world did not care as they gradually ran
out of medication and oxygen while the politicians gave press conferences about how
well Democrats and Republicans were cooperating. I saw sick babies and paraplegics
living for five days outside in 100 degree weather, while gangs of armed youths roamed,
raped, and terrorized in filthy refugee camps of 20,000 of societies most afflicted and
abandoned. These poor people were placed in massive outdoor "security" pens for as
many as 6 days, and many of them died. This incredibly large group of people
desperately needed food, water and transportation out of New Orleans. The immediate
federal response for relief was so incredibly inept it left many of us to wonder if the lack
of support was deliberate…I saw drug addicts take over parts of the city and terrorize,
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and heard that they shot nurses in the back of the head to steal pharmaceuticals to ease
their drug withdrawals. And despite what you might read in the news, this wasn't a case
of everyone working together to save lives. Officials from neighboring, more affluent
parishes (counties) than Orleans said that citizens of New Orleans were not welcome in
their parishes because they only had enough supplies for their own (Homan par. 3).
Michael’s story is just one of thousands after Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans. It is
stories such as Michael’s that make many consider the relief effort of Hurricane Katrina
unsuccessful.
Hurricane Katrina was quite possibly the worst natural disaster in United States history,
as it overwhelmed the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi and triggered the
failures of levees protecting New Orleans. It resulted in the largest relocation of U.S. citizens
since the Dust Bowl in the 1930’s, displacing more than a million people and caused nearly one
thousand deaths (Nigg 113). The storm itself tested the “capacity, adequacy and limits” of the
Bush administration. Former President George W. Bush suggests that the Katrina recovery may
cost as much as $200 billion (Sylves 29, 43). News reports surfaced of President Bush and his
officials being racist, and the reason for the poor handling of Katrina and its aftermath was that
Bush and company saw no urgency in needing to help the poor, black residents who were
suffering; New Orleans is, after all, the country’s twelfth poorest city in our nation (Giroux 184).
Barbara Bush was quoted when speaking in Houston about the relief effort, saying “many of the
people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles
slightly) is working very well for them" (Barbara Bush par. 6).
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Many people believe the Bush administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina was
influenced by racism. These people include news reporters, political analysts and many
Americans across our nation. One of the most notable critics of President Bush, especially for
those in the pop culture business, is rapper Kanye West. West was recognized in Time
Magazine’s list of Top 100 Most Influential People in 2005. While speaking live on NBC, on
September 5, 2005, Kanye threw out the script and went on his own, saying, “George Bush
doesn’t care about black people” (Kanye West par. 6). The screen immediately went black, and
West’s audio feed was cut. The producers cut the comment from the West Coast showing, but
West’s message had already gotten out to the public. President Bush also had his critics in the
world of academia. According to author Henry A. Giroux,
The bodies of the Katrina victims… reveal and shatter the conservative fiction of living
in a color-blind society. The bodies of the Katrina victims laid bare the racial and class
fault lines that mark an increasingly damaged and withering democracy and revealed the
emergence of a new kind of politics, one in which entire populations are now considered
disposable, an unnecessary burden on state coffers, and con signed to fend for themselves
(174).
Giroux went on to say, “The Bush administration was not simply unprepared for Hurricane
Katrina as it denied that the federal government alone had the resources to address catastrophic
events; it actually felt no responsibility for the lives of poor blacks and others marginalized by
poverty and relegated to the outskirts of society” (175). The relief effort was a failure, there is no
denying that. Even though the majority of the population, near seventy percent, was African
American, this does not mean the relief effort was a failure because of who was on the other end
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of the help (184). It is just a coincidence that New Orleans’ populations is mostly black and help
for the city was lacking.
Although former President Bush has personally accepted blame for the failures and
prolonged government response the disaster, he does not deserve all of the blame. As the
President of the United States, he is ultimately responsible for the way in which New Orleans
and Hurricane Katrina were both handled. But the way in which our emergency response
programs and agencies are structured made it nearly impossible to get the necessary supplies to
New Orleans in a timely fashion. Former emergency services director for the state of California,
Richard A. Andrews, said state and local failures were absolutely critical in the response to
Katrina (Sylves 35).
No group, business or agency can be successful without an experienced, highly qualified
leader. The government created FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, in 1979 to
coordinate the response to any disaster in United States that “overwhelms the resources of local
and state authorities” (Sylves 31). Unfortunately, leadership is exactly what FEMA lacked. One
example is Michael Brown, the acting director from 2003 to 2005 who was criticized and
ultimately forced to resign after his failures in leadership during FEMA’s actions in Hurricane
Katrina. According to AP Reporter Mark Humphrey, FEMA leaders lack disaster experience and
the agency has suffered a “brain drain” since 2001 (33). Surprisingly, five of the eight top FEMA
officials came into their positions with virtually no experience in handling disasters (33). This
“brain drain” makes it nearly impossible for the agency to operate as it should. As executive
director of the National Emergency Management Association Trina Sheets says, “FEMA
requires strong leadership and experience because state and local governments rely on them.
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When you don’t have trained, qualified people in those positions, the program suffers as a
whole” (34).
Problems worsened in 2003 when FEMA was folded into the Department of Homeland
Security, or DHS. Those formerly who worked in the organization were forced to work for the
Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate of DHS. This reorganization has caused
FEMA to lose significant financial and human resources. It is now a small agency within a
massive bureaucracy and its activities are overshadowed by much larger and “better funded
entities within DHS” (30). FEMA currently operates as a disaster response agency and directly
reports to the secretary of DHS; it no longer “centrally manages disaster mitigation and
preparedness” (30). In March of 2004, testifying before U.S. Congress, former FEMA director
James Lee Witt warned that the nation’s ability to react and respond to disasters of any type has
been drastically weakened by some of the post 9/11 agency realignments (33).
In a recent ranking of government agencies by The Partnership for Public Service, FEMA
ranked last of the twenty eight agencies studied in 2003. In a 2004 survey by the American
Federation of Government Employees, it was found that of eighty four career FEMA
professionals who responded, only ten people ranked agency leaders excellent or good. Another
twenty eight said the leadership was fair, and thirty three called it poor (Sylves 35). The lack of
leadership of FEMA is no secret, whether it’s external or within the organization.
When Katrina struck, the National Guard assisted in helping those still trapped in New
Orleans. The National Guard has about 312,000 soldiers. These soldiers are commanded by a
state’s governor unless called to federal duty by the President. Military sociologist at the
University of Maryland, David Segal, noted that only sixty percent of the Mississippi Guard and
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only sixty five percent of the Louisiana Guard were on hand during Katrina because of
deployment to Iraq: “In the past, the Guard did not play as large a role in international
deployments” (Sylves 41). It is not President Bush’s fault that during a time in which they were
desperately needed, nearly half of the area’s National Guard was elsewhere serving their country.
For U.S. presidents, there is an unwritten rule book for recovery from disasters. The first
rule is “act fast” (Sylves 43). The second rule is “send it all” because local and state officials are
often reluctant to admit they need help (43). The third rule is U.S. Presidents are expected to
“explain and console” (43). President George W. Bush’s response to Katrina followed all three
of these unwritten rules. Once Congress approved a measure to provide Katrina-devastated areas
with more than sixty billion dollars in assistance, he signed it almost immediately. That action
entertains the first two unwritten rules, and throughout the storm, no matter where he was,
President Bush made an effort to comfort and console the nation. On Sunday, August 28, 2005,
the day before Hurricane Katrina, President Bush briefly spoke to reporters, congratulating Iraqis
on their new constitution. In his brief speech the President said of the upcoming storm, “We will
do everything in our power to help the people in the communities affected by this storm” (45).
That same day, it was reported that an empty Amtrak train left New Orleans with room
for hundreds of potential evacuees. Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black spoke of the empty train,
saying “[w]e offered the city the opportunity to take evacuees out of harm’s way… The city
declined” (Sylves 46). A couple weeks later, Nagin denied that Amtrak offered their services on
NBC's Meet the Press, saying, "Amtrak never contacted me to make that offer. I have never
gotten that call, Tim (the host), and I would love to have had that call. But it never happened"
(46). President Bush had nothing to do with this situation and was in no way involved. Hundreds
of people could have been spared from Katrina’s wrath, but this strange miscommunication
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resulted in the unnecessary suffering of hundreds of New Orleanains who had no other way of
evacuating the city.
On Thursday, September 1, 2005, three days after the storm hits, Marsha Evans, the
President of the Red Cross, requested permission to enter the city with relief supplies. For
unknown reasons however, Louisiana state officials denied the Red Cross permission (Sylves
50). These supplies could have helped the hundreds of people who were left behind by the empty
train. Again the people of New Orleans are suffering more than they have to because of
questionable decisions made by local authorities. If leaders and decision makers on the local
level are bringing unnecessary pain and suffering to their people, why has President George W.
Bush been accused of doing a poor job and even being racist?
In an interview CNN reporter Paula Zahn, FEMA Director Michael Brown was quoted as
saying, “[a]nd so, -- this catastrophic disaster continues to grow. I will tell you this, though.
Every person in that Convention Center, we just learned about that today… Paula, the federal
government did not even know about the Convention Center people until today” (Desperation in
New Orleans Interview). This interview was conducted on September 1, three days after the
hurricane. Thousands of people spent three days hoping and praying for help and there was no
knowledge of their existence. A lacking of communication on the site of the disaster caused
thousands more to suffer. Again, there was nothing President Bush could have done. The blame
falls on the communication of the field officers. This once again proves that the absence of
leadership and communication were major factors in the failures after Katrina and changes must
be made to our emergency response programs.
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Hurricane Katrina escalated to a category 5 storm on August 28. That same day,
authorities established the Louisiana Superdome as a “refuge of last resort”. According to the
Louisiana Emergency Operations Plan, a refuge of last resort is “a place for persons to be
protected from the high winds and heavy rains from the storm. Unlike a shelter, there may be
little or no water or food and possibly no utilities” (Office of Emergency Preparedness 2005, 29).
Despite this fact, three truckloads of ready-to-eat meals and water were delivered to the
Superdome by Louisiana National Guard. Those trucks contained enough supplies to provide for
fifteen thousand people over a span of three days (Nigg 115). President Bush and the National
Guard went beyond their expected duties and provided food, water and supplies.
The Emergency Operations Plan, developed by the Southeast Louisiana Hurricane Task
Force, called for the use of several hundred school buses for evacuation. However, the buses
were never deployed because of a lack of bus drivers (Nigg 115). It is the responsibility of the
City of New Orleans to provide drivers for the busses. Failure on the local level, along with the
unfortunate fact that one out of every person did not have a vehicle available for personal use,
has taken away opportunities for victims to flee the city (Nigg 119). This wasn’t the only time
where miscommunication was present in the relief effort. According to Felice Batlan, a Katrina
survivor who experienced the shortcomings of FEMA first hand said, “the rules seemed to
change on an hourly basis. Often one FEMA representative would espouse one set of rules and
another representative would provide the opposite interpretation” (Batlan 173). Batlan went on to
say that once FEMA personnel actually got familiar with the rules, issues and problems, FEMA
would transfer them so the employees “did not become too sympathetic to disaster victims and a
community” (Batlan 173).
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Race and economic status played no role in the way in which Hurricane Katrina was
handled. Nor was it the fault of President George W. Bush. The blame falls on a failure of
communication on multiple levels, the inability for local level authorities to act, those who
decided to stay in New Orleans, partially on our former President, and of course, Mother Nature.
To blame one individual for the shortcomings of our country’s reaction to a disaster is simply
ridiculous; everyone could have done much more. While, for the most part, Hurricane Katrina
was considered a failure, there were some positives to the relief and evacuation efforts. Despite
one in six people not having a car, the pre-hurricane evacuation rate was eighty percent (Nigg
119). Two weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck, twenty-five states were involved in providing
shelter for evacuees, and nearly half of the ZIP codes in the United States sheltered evacuees
(Nigg 117).
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Works Cited
“Barbara Bush: Things Working Out 'Very Well' for Poor Evacuees from New Orleans."
EditorandPublisher.com - Information Authority for the Newspaper Industry. Web. 14
Mar. 2010.
Batlan, Felice. "Weathering the Storm Together (Torn Apart by Race, Gender, and Class)."
NWSA Fall 20.3 (2008): 164-84. Project Muse. Web. 18 Apr. 2010.
"Desperation in New Orleans; Interview With FEMA Director Mike Brown." Interview by Paula
Zahn. Paula Zahn Now. CNN. 1 Sept. 2005. Television.
Giroux, Henry A. "Reading Hurricane Katrina: Race, Class, and the Biopolitics of
Disposability." College Literature 33.3 (2006): 171-96. JSTOR. Web. 22 Feb. 2010.
Homan, Michael. "One of the Millions of Hurricane Katrina Stories." Michael Homan. 5 Sept.
2005. Web. 19 Apr. 2010.
Kanye West: "Bush Doesn't Care About Black People"" A Daily TV/radio News Program,
Hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, Airing on over 800 Stations, Pioneering
the Largest Community Media Collaboration in the U.S. 5 Sept. 2005. Web. 03 May
2010.
Nigg, Joanne M., John Barnshaw, and Manuel R. Torres. "Hurricane Katrina and The Flooding
of New Orleans: Emergent Issues in Sheltering and Temporary Housing." Annals of the
American Academy of Political Science 604 (2006): 113-28. JSTOR. Web. 22 Feb. 2010.
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Office of Emergency Preparedness. 2005. State of Louisiana Emergency Operations Plan. Apr. 4
2010
Sylves, Richard T. "President Bush and Hurricane Katrina: A Presidential Leadership Study."
Annals of the American Academy of Political Science 604 (2006): 26-56. JSTOR. Web.
22 Feb. 2010.