I've Been Waiting For Someone To Bring Up Katrina

Pursuit on the Kentucky ice storm:

For the most part your fellow citizens are showing themselves well; Minimal complaining, no New Orleans style "where's the government" bleaters.

There are a couple of reasons for that, not least of which is that government has been Johnny-on-the-spot during the whole event. At every level, responsibilities have been defined and fulfilled. The Mayor and Governor have left not a single moment of doubt about who's in charge, and the federal government has offered and delivered resources quickly and adeptly. Government help was readily available before, during and after the event for every need greater than an insurance report on a non-injury accident. When the shelters got within 10% of being filled, other safe sites were opened.

More importantly, the nature of the disaster is completely different. My power was out, but I was never more than ten blocks from stores and restaurants that were open, and the roads between here and there were never impassable even to my low-slung Honda. The buses never stopped running. What we experienced, in our household, was an inconvenience, not a catastrophe, and for those relatively few people whose lives really were in danger, help was literally a phone call away.

I find it interesting that you're still unable to grasp why Katrina was a government failure, but being a hopeful soul I'll try to explain one more time.

New Orleans, as a functioning city, was destroyed by the storm and the flooding that followed. The scale of the event was such that city government, even had it been well managed, would have been largely impotent to do much at all in response. State government was in better shape, and you can argue that the state response could have been stronger, but it was still not large enough to get the aid where the aid was needed. The situation required a federal response.  That response was slow and inept.

Let's be honest about one other thing: There was an element of racism in the public response to Katrina. When rumors circulated of human predators in the streets of the city, I remember well the Republicans I know advocating that the federal government to keep the Army and National Guard out of the city until "those people" stopped shooting at helicopters -- something that may never have happened, but that made a lot of headlines at the time and had an influence on the federal response. It was as if, somehow, Katrina was a moral failure on the part of the citizens of New Orleans and until they demonstrated themselves deserving no aid would be provided.

Do a thought experiment: imagine it was a hundred thousand white suburbanites huddling in shelters, without food or water and under the control of a handful of black gangsters and thugs and rapists. Do you think anyone would urge the federal government to hold back the Army -- the Army! -- until it was safe for it to go in? Of course not; a reaction like that is impossible to imagine. The feds would have sent the first three Humvees to show up at the staging area in with flags flying high and, if necessary, guns a-blazing. Nothing would have held them back -- and if something had, the outrage among conservatives would have been enormous.

In New Orleans, the federal response was delayed until it was pathetic, and conservatives -- you, just for example -- to this day blame the victims of the storm. The feds preened for the cameras while leaving to the fates good people who were following the rules. You can claim that wasn't racist, but I think the thought experiment above puts the lie to that. What you can't claim is that it was sufficient, or laudable, or has any reasonable similarity to the federal response to the relatively small Kentucky ice storm.

It may seem gratuitous to say this, but the conservative inability to understand what was wrong with the government response to Katrina is one of the reasons you guys can't get elected to public office these days. You may hate and scorn government, but most people prefer government that works.

Comments

[pursuit]

Thanks for the headline billing dude, and glad all is well in ole Kentuck. Curious though, did you bump your head or something? Cuz I gotta tell you, I never said Katrina wasn't a case of government failure. The difference was that it was primarily a local and state government failure. Even you recognize the importance of "johnny on the spot" response for the local and state folks who "have never left a moment of doubt about who was in charge". In New Orleans, Mayor Sleepy and Gov. Dimwit heard the battle call and promptly fainted.

I, in a post that amazingly also includes movie critique and fashion advice for Naomi Wolf, argue convincingly this very same point about Katrina. Here is the link:

http://foodwinepolitics.blogspot.com/2005/09/final-thoughts-on-katrina.html

Sadly you can't seem to get over your Bush hatred and go on to talk about how "one could argue that the state response could have been stronger". This is like saying dental care in Kentucky could be stronger. True, but an extreme in understatement!

Anyway, all I really wanted to do was compliment your State and Local government who show well on TV here, and the people who have gotten through a difficult time well.

[Tom]

Apparently, while I was bumping my head, you missed my explanation of why local and state government -- even had they been hyper efficient, which they weren't -- would have been inadequate to fill the need of New Orleans.

It's nice how you let the feds off the hook though. I'm sure the party affiliations of the politicians involved have nothing to do with your keenly objective analysis.

[pursuit]

"I'm sure the party affiliations of the politicians involved have nothing to do with your keenly objective analysis."

Good man! When you've got nuthin' through out the baseless charge.

[Steve]

Tom, you are correct, the federal government could and should have done a MUCH better job post Katrina. However the state and local governments could and should have done something, anything at all Pre-Katrina. Mayor Nagin refused to declare a mandatory evacuation until it was much too late because he didn't want to be the first mayor to evacuate New Orleans. He then left the city command center to hole up at the Hyatt, out of communication with State and local officials. The State government was inefficient and ineffective. There is plenty of blame to go around, including the Army Corps of Engineers failure to maintain the levess, for years, certainly for much longer than simply during the Bush administration. I highly recommend "The Great Deluge" by Douglas Brinkley for an unbiased report on the failures at every level. Or perhaps I can put you in touch with some of my family members who live in and around New Orleans to hear their views.

But then, it is probably easier for you to just blame Bush.

[Scott]

I remember well the Republicans I know advocating that the federal government to keep the Army and National Guard out of the city until "those people" stopped shooting at helicopters

Got anything close to a cite for that or is it purely anecdotal? I personally don't remember a single person, besides media dorks who got a wonderful headline and of course ran it (one could say with flags flying high), who thought random thugs shooting at helicopters would stop the US BY GOD ARMY.

I do personally remember, also, that there was a Constitutional argument about using the US Army on American soil. There probably still is, and should be. But that's just the Constitution...what good is that moldy old thing?