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Stephen Forchielli
Dr. Tillman
Eng 102
Hurricane Katrina: Who’s to Blame?
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 surrounding 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). 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 countries twelfth poorest city (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).
Although former President Bush has personally accepted blame for the failures and
prolonged government response the disaster, he is not deserving of all the blame. As the
President of the United States, yes he is ultimately responsible for the way in which New Orleans
and Hurricane Katrina were handled. But the way in which our emergency response programs
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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. FEMA, short for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was created in 1979 to
coordinate the response to any disaster in United States that overwhelms the resources of local
and state authorities. Unfortunately, leadership is exactly what FEMA lacked. One example is
Michael Brown, he was the acting director from 2003 to 2005 but was criticized and ultimately
forced to resign after his failures in leadership during FEMA’s actions during Hurricane Katrina.
According to AP Reporter Mark Humphrey, FEMA leaders lack disaster experience and the
agency has suffered a “brain drain” since 2001. Surprisingly, five of eight top FEMA officials
came into their positions with virtually no experience in handling disasters (Sylves 33). This
“brain drain” makes it near 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.
When you don’t have trained, qualified people in those positions, the program suffers as a whole
(Sylves 34).
Problems worsened in 2003 when FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) 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
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larger and better funded entities within DHS. 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 (Sylves 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 (Sylves 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
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. The second rule is “send it all” because local and state officials are often reluctant
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to admit they need help. The third rule is U.S. Presidents are expected to explain and console
(Sylves 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” (Sylves
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). President Bush had nothing to do with this. Hundreds of people could
have been spared from Katrina’s wrath, but for whatever or reason the city had for declining the
offer, whether it was miscommunication or something else, the blame cannot possibly be put on
President Bush.
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
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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 Directir 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” (((NEED TO
CITE 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.
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”. Despite this fact, three truckloads of ready-toeat 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).
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). Failure on the local level,
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along with the unfortunate fact that one in every people did not have a vehicle available for
personal use, has taken away opportunities for victims to flee the city (Nigg 119).
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 countries reaction to a disaster is simply
ridiculous; more could have been done by all.
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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.
"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.
Nigg, Joanne M., John Barnshaw, and Manuel R. Torres. "Hurricane Katrina and Th 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.
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.