Criticism of government response to Hurricane Katrina

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Jump to: navigation, search
Hurricane Katrina

2005 Atlantic hurricane season


Stop! The neutrality of this section is disputed.

Criticism of government response to Hurricane Katrina primarily consisted of condemnations of mismanagement and lack of leadership in the relief effort in response to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, specifically in the delayed response to the flooding of New Orleans.

Within days of Katrina's August 29, 2005, landfall, public debate arose about local, state and federal governments' role in the preparations for and response to the storm. Criticism was prompted largely by televised images of visibly shaken and frustrated political leaders, and of residents who remained in New Orleans without water, food or shelter; and the deaths of several citizens of thirst, exhaustion, and violence days after the storm itself had passed. Others have alleged that race, class, and other factors perhaps even deliberately contributed to preventing help by others while delaying its own response (see Criticisms of FEMA below). The federal government's planning and response, under President Bush's leadership, initially faced the harshest criticism. Subsequently, criticism from politicians, activists, pundits and journalists of all stripes has been directed at the local, state and federal governments.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has also felt criticism for failing to implement his evacuation plan and for ordering residents to a shelter of last resort without any provisions for food, water, security, or sanitary conditions.

President Bush has faced criticism from across the political spectrum, for his personal performance before and after the disaster, over possible effects his policies of the previous four years may have had on emergency preparedness, and as the leader of an administration seen by many to have failed in this situation.

The devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina has raised other, more general public policy issues about emergency management, environmental policy, poverty, and unemployment. The discussion of both the immediate response and of the broader public policy issues may affect elections and legislation enacted at various levels of government.

Contents

Specific issues regarding government response

Issues relating to the local and state government's response

  • Whether the mayor's evacuation plan was correctly executed.
  • Whether the mandatory evacuation notice was given in a timely manner.
  • Whether the evacuation should have been mandatory at all.
  • Whether the significant walk-off of the New Orleans police force diminished the city's ability to keep order.
  • Whether the necessary provisions were made ahead of time for housing evacuees at the city's shelters of last resort, including food and water.

Issues relating to the federal government's response

  • Whether factors of race and class in the United States have caused those most in need to be treated unequally in a time of crisis.
  • Whether preferential treatment was given to Americans or language barriers influenced evacuation.
  • Whether the War in Iraq has diverted personnel, equipment, and other resources that would otherwise be available to assist in the crisis.
  • Whether local, state and national officials have responded quickly enough, and with sufficient resources to address the crisis.
  • Whether government 'placed pride over lives' when they declined the immediate offers of assistance from the international community.
  • Whether government and media attention has focused on New Orleans to the detriment of those needing assistance in Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, as well as in the parishes below New Orleans or around Lake Pontchartrain.
  • Whether the disaster could have been largely avoided with prior rehearsals for such an event.
  • Whether Michael Brown was qualified to lead FEMA (most biographies and accounts note that he had virtually no experience in emergency management before taking the job [1]).

Criticisms of preparations

Outside the Convention Center in New Orleans, 3 September 2005
Enlarge
Outside the Convention Center in New Orleans, 3 September 2005
Main article: Hurricane preparedness for New Orleans

See also: Effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans: Criticism of relief effort

Criticisms of evacuation

Many critics have noted that while the local government gave a mandatory evacuation order on August 28, before the storm hit, they did not make provisions to evacuate the large numbers of citizens unable to evacuate themselves. In a BBC documentary [2] Walter Maestri, head of emergency preparedness for Jefferson Parish, stated that a year previously this issue had been fully discussed with Fema officials who promised that within 48 hours of a hurricane emergency they would provide assistance with transporting evacuees from the city, but in practice evacuation was mainly left up to individuals to find their own way out of the city. New Orleans has one of the highest poverty rates in the United States, at about 38%. These factors prevented many people from being able to evacuate on their own. Consequentially most of those stranded in the city were the poor, the elderly, and the sick.[3][4].

Karen Tumulty of Time magazine stated, "New Orleans allowed development for decades that actually weakened the barrier islands and encouraged erosion. It clearly did not have an adequate evacuation plan, even though the city was fully aware that over 100,000 people there don't have cars."

Authorities have refused to allow consular officials of Australia access to the affected areas, citing dangerous conditions.[5] Evacuation of tourists has been facilitated by foreign journalists. Canadian [6] and Japanese consular officials have, however, been able to visit.

Provisions for the poor, elderly and those without automobiles

The mandatory evacuation called on August 28 made no provisions to evacuate homeless or low-income and carless households, as well as large numbers of elderly and the infirm. Officials knew that many residents of New Orleans lack cars. A 2000 census revealed that 27% of New Orleans households, amounting to approximately 120,000 people, were without privately owned transportation. In a BBC documentary [7] Walter Maestri, head of emergency preparedness for Jefferson Parish, stated that a year previously this issue had been fully discussed with Fema officials who promised that within 48 hours of a hurricane emergency they would provide assistance with transporting evacuees from the city.

It has been stated in an evacuation order that, beginning at noon on August 28 and running for several hours, all city buses were redeployed to shuttle local residents to "refuges of last resort" designated in advance, including the Superdome. The same article stated that the state had prepositioned enough food and water to supply 15,000 citizens with supplies for 3 days, the anticipated waiting period before FEMA would arrive in force and provide supplies for those still in the city. The BBC documentary indicated that FEMA had provided these supplies, but that Brown was greatly surprised by the much larger numbers of people who turned up seeking refuge, and also that Brown held back supply vehicles from delivering food and water for two days before they arrived on Friday 2nd

On the night of August 31st, the governor (Kathleen Babineaux Blanco) was begging FEMA and other federal authorities for transport without success.[8] The same day, Governor Blanco issued an executive order where "she has in consultation with school superintendents, utilized public school buses for transportation of Hurricane Katrina evacuees."[9] On September 3 she ordered school superintendents to supply bus inventories.[10]

Criticisms of emergency response

President Bush observes damage from Hurricane Katrina over New Orleans, August 31.
Enlarge
President Bush observes damage from Hurricane Katrina over New Orleans, August 31.

Criticism of local and national government response is widespread in the media, as reports continued to show hunger, deaths and lack of aid.[11] More than two and a half days after the hurricane struck, police, health care and other emergency workers voiced concerns in the media about the absence of National Guard troops in the city for search and rescue missions and to control looting. Media reports have also claimed that National Guard units are short staffed in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama because they are currently on a tour of duty in Iraq, including 3,000 members of the Louisiana National Guard's 256th Brigade.[12] The failure to immediately evacuate or re-supply New Orleans area hospitals and the lack of a visible FEMA presence in the city and surrounding area has raised concerns in the press.

In a BBC documentary [13] Walter Maestri, head of emergency preparedness for Jefferson Parish, stated that Fema had been fully involved in a disaster simulation codenamed "Hurricane Pam" and subsequently Fema officials promised that within 48 hours of a hurricane emergency they would supply food, water, medical provisions, and assistance with transporting evacuees from the city, but in the event these promises were not met.

Governors and other officials in several states have expressed surprise that they did not get formal requests for their National Guard troops until days after the hurricane struck. "We could have had people on the road Tuesday," said the commander of the Michigan Guard. Louisiana's Governor had accepted an offer of National Guard reinforcements from New Mexico on August 28, but this was not approved by the federal government until September 1, and the number of National Guard from other states in New Orleans when the hurricane hit was only 723.[14]

Jurisdiction issues

Whenever active duty federal troops are deployed, there is reference to the Posse Comitatus Act, 18 U.S.C. §1385, which prevents ordinary use of the federal military force in support of local and federal law enforcement or in quelling riots or civil disorder. The National Guard remain under the control of the governor during ordinary times. The president can waive the requirement and assume control of the military in an emergency. However, in practice the President will not assume control of a state's National Guard or move federal troops into a state on a law and order mission until requested by the state's Governor. In addition, the Stafford Act states that the president cannot declare that a disaster exists in a state unless requested to do so by the state's governor, who must furnish information on the disaster and the steps the state has taken to resist or recover from it as part of the request. The Louisiana Governor took the required steps before the storm hit.

Some Bush administration supporters contend that Louisiana Gov. Blanco did not request military assistance for several days after the hurricane hit.[15] However, Lieutenant General Russel Honoré, the head of the Department of Defense's Joint Task Force Katrina, indicated in a briefing on September 1 that the governors of Louisiana and other Gulf Coast states requested that the Pentagon establish local defense coordinating offices on Friday, August 26, and that the Army began operating in those states that day and the following weekend in preparation for the hurricane.[16] In addition, Gov. Blanco formally requested that the president declare a state of emergency in Louisiana on August 27, in a letter complying with the terms of the Stafford Act.[17]

Presidential role

Senator John McCain enjoys a birthday cake with President George W. Bush on August 29, 2005.
Enlarge
Senator John McCain enjoys a birthday cake with President George W. Bush on August 29, 2005.

Appearance

Bush was on vacation at his home in Crawford, Texas, about 200 miles northwest of Houston, when Katrina struck on August 29. On that day, he flew to California to promote his administration's prescription drug plan for senior citizens and to give a speech to troops at a Navy base where country singer Mark Wills presented Bush with a guitar.

The image of President Bush playing a guitar that day outraged many and was called "Exhibit A for many liberal bloggers" in the opinion piece called American Caesar: Nero Fiddled while Rome burned because "He may find the comparison hard to shake. True, while Bush enjoyed his vacation and strummed his new guitar, a great city was being devastated by water rather than fire. And unlike the Emperor Nero, who was accused by the historian Suetonius of having deliberately started the fire that destroyed much of Rome in AD 64, no one is accusing President Bush of planning Hurricane Katrina. But the Bush administration deserves substantial blame for the scale of the catastrophe in New Orleans." Los Angeles Times

Competing priorities

Early Tuesday morning, August 30, President Bush attended a V-J Day commemoration ceremony at Coronado, California [18].

24 hours before the ceremony [19], storm surges began overwhelming levees and floodwalls protecting the city of New Orleans [20], greatly exacerbating the minimal damage from rainfall and wind when the hurricane itself veered to the East and avoided a direct hit on New Orleans. News of flooding of the city was widely available by Tuesday morning [21], with one account [22] reporting "At 9 a.m. CDT a levee breach was reported at Tennessee Street by CCTV operators of a local bank." and "At 11 a.m. the National Weather Service reported that a levee broke on the Industrial Canal, a 5.5-mile waterway that connects the Mississippi River to the Intracoastal Waterway, near the St. Bernard-Orleans parish line (Tennessee St.) and 3 to 10 feet of flooding was possible." These times are for Monday, August 29. One major breach was confirmed in a briefing at City Hall mid-afternoon on Monday.

Oil pipelines

According to the Hattiesburg American, Vice President Dick Cheney, a former oil industry executive, personally called the manager of the Southern Pines Electric Power Association on the night of August 30 and again the next morning and ordered him to divert power crews to substations in nearby Collins that were essential to the operation of the Colonial Pipeline, which carries gasoline and diesel fuel from Texas to the Northeast [23]. The power crews were reportedly upset when told what the purpose of the redirection was, since they were in the process of restoring power to two local hospitals, but did it anyway.

Liberal blogger Joshua Micah Marshall found the swiftness of this response an interesting contrast to the general disorganization of the relief effort. [24]

Criticisms of approach

The New York Times described a September 1 speech by President Bush as "casual to the point of carelessness".[25] Bush was also criticised for not breaking off his vacation until Wednesday afternoon, more than a day after the Monday hurricane.[26] Others have noted that on August 28, the president telephoned Gov. Blanco before Katrina struck, and many have suggested without factual backup that Bush urged a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans and it was his exhortations that caused the mandatory evacuation to be announced[27]; however, by that time the governor was already en route to a press conference to order a mandatory evacuation. [28]

Bush overflew the devastated area from half a mile up in the air, going 500 mph, from Air Force One as he traveled from Texas back to Washington, and subsequently visited the Gulf Coast on Friday and was briefed on Hurricane Katrina. The president expressed enthusiasm in the pending reconstruction of the Gulf Coast, noting particularly, "...that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house — he's lost his entire house — there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch."

A report on Germany's ZDF television implied that some relief efforts were being staged to benefit the President's public image.[29]

U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security

The recent Katrina hurricane, some say, was the first major test of Department of Homeland Security with Michael Chertoff at the helm. There have been questions on who was in charge of the disaster and who had jurisdictional authority. According to many media outlets as well as many politicians the response to the disaster was inadequate in terms of leadership and response. For example to illustrate a typical view of those critical of the department, State Rep. Peter Sullivan said "Director Brown and Secretary Chertoff have given incompetence a bad name. Their planning was nonexistent. Their response to the crisis was lethargic. Their attempts to shirk responsibility is revolting. At a time when our country needs forthright leaders, this administration gives us two men more concerned with partisan spin than with human suffering. Brown and Chertoff failed America, and they must be fired immediately". Both President George W. Bush and Congress plan separate investigations into Department of Homeland Security's response to the Katrina disaster.

On September 13, Knight-Ridder reported the existence of a memo Chertoff issued 36 hours after the hurricane's landfall which reads, in part: "As you know, the President has established the `White House Task Force on Hurricane Katrina Response.' He will meet with us tomorrow to launch this effort. The Department of Homeland Security, along with other Departments, will be part of the task force and will assist the Administration with its response to Hurricane Katrina," The memo activated the National Response Plan and made Brown responsible for federal action. The article finds:

"White House and homeland security officials wouldn't explain why Chertoff waited some 36 hours to declare Katrina an incident of national significance and why he didn't immediately begin to direct the federal response from the moment on Aug. 27 when the National Hurricane Center predicted that Katrina would strike the Gulf Coast with catastrophic force in 48 hours. Nor would they explain why Bush felt the need to appoint a separate task force.
Chertoff's hesitation and Bush's creation of a task force both appear to contradict the National Response Plan and previous presidential directives that specify what the secretary of homeland security is assigned to do without further presidential orders. The goal of the National Response Plan is to provide a streamlined framework for swiftly delivering federal assistance when a disaster - caused by terrorists or Mother Nature - is too big for local officials to handle." [30]

FEMA

Criticisms of FEMA's response are developing as survivors remain displaced for an extended period. Survivors continue to organize and document gaps in FEMA's programs at a wiki site: www.FEMAanswers.org.

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, announcing the creation of a city-sponsored "Chicago Helps Fund," said of the slow Federal response: "I was shocked...We are ready to provide considerably more help than they have requested...We are just waiting for the call...I don't want to sit here and all of a sudden we are all going to be political...Just get it done." [31]

"Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response and head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), today urged all fire and emergency services departments not to respond to counties and states affected by Hurricane Katrina without being requested and lawfully dispatched by state and local authorities under mutual aid agreements and the Emergency Management Assistance Compact." FEMA.gov

"The general manager of the Astor Hotel at Astor Crowne Plaza said the hotels teamed to hire 10 buses to carry some 500 guests. But Peter Ambros said federal officials commandeered the buses, and told the guests to join thousands of other evacuees at the New Orleans convention center. One man says he and others had paid $45 a seat for the buses, and that they were "totally stunned" when the buses never arrived. Another woman said the crowd had waited 14 hours for the buses. She said the idea of walking to the convention center scared her because of reports of looting." [32]

"Far from deferring to state or local officials, FEMA asserted its authority and made things worse, Mr. Broussard complained on Meet the Press. When Wal-Mart sent three trailer trucks loaded with water, FEMA officials turned them away, he said. Agency workers prevented the Coast Guard from delivering 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel, and on Saturday they cut the parish's emergency communications line, leading the sheriff to restore it and post armed guards to protect it from FEMA, Mr. Broussard said. One sign of the continuing battle over who was in charge was Governor Blanco's refusal to sign an agreement proposed by the White House to share control of National Guard forces with the federal authorities." New York Times

However, Mr. Broussard had said the Wal-Mart delivery had been turned away a week earlier, which was Sunday, August 28, before the hurricane struck. A caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers was reported in New Orleans Thursday, September 1st. [33]
17th Street Canal work area, Sept 4.
Enlarge
17th Street Canal work area, Sept 4.

"[T]he U.S. Forest Service had water-tanker aircraft available to help douse the fires raging on our riverfront, but FEMA has yet to accept the aid. When Amtrak offered trains to evacuate significant numbers of victims -- far more efficiently than buses -- FEMA again dragged its feet. Offers of medicine, communications equipment and other desperately needed items continue to flow in, only to be ignored by the agency. But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast -- black and white, rich and poor, young and old -- deserve far better from their national government." U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, D-La.

Sandbags and bulldozer at 17th Street Canal, Sept 4.
Enlarge
Sandbags and bulldozer at 17th Street Canal, Sept 4.
However, Landrieu's overflight was of the end of the single-lane roadway being built toward the breach. The "single, lonely piece of equipment" was one power shovel, a bulldozer, and two dump trucks. Video did not show the work area a few hundred feet away at the start of the roadway. USACE photos show a variety of equipment at that site the following day.
Main article: Civil engineering and infrastructure repair in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina

"On Wednesday morning a group of approximately 1,000 citizens pulling 500 boats left the Acadiana Mall in Lafayette in the early morning and headed to New Orleans with a police escort from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Department. The flotilla of trucks pulling boats stretched over FIVE miles. This citizen rescue group was organized by La. State Senator, Nick Gautreaux from Vermilion Parish. The group was comprised of experienced boaters, licensed fishermen and hunters, people who have spent their entire adult life and teenage years on the waterways of Louisiana. The State Police waved the flotilla of trucks/boats through the barricades in LaPlace and we sped into New Orleans via I-10 until past the airport and near the Clearview exit. At that time we were stopped by agents of the FEMA controlled La. Dept. of Wildlife & Fisheries. [...] On Tuesday afternoon, August 30, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee asked for all citizens with boats to come to the aid of Jefferson Parish. A short time later Dwight Landreneau, the head of the La. Depart. of Wildlife and Fisheries, got on television and remarked that his agency had things under control and citizen help was not needed. Apparently, Sheriff Lee did not agree with that assessment and had one of his deputies provide the Lafayette flotilla with an escort into Jefferson Parish. Sheriff Lee and Senator Gautreaux - 1000 of Louisiana's citizens responded to the public's pleas for help. They were prevented from helping by Dwight Landreneau's agency, the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries which had been taken over by FEMA." [34]

"The heart-rending pictures broadcast from the Gulf Coast drew offers of every possible kind of help. But FEMA found itself accused repeatedly of putting bureaucratic niceties ahead of getting aid to those who desperately needed it. Hundreds of firefighters, who responded to a nationwide call for help in the disaster, were held by the federal agency in Atlanta for days of training on community relations and sexual harassment before being sent on to the devastated area. The delay, some volunteers complained, meant lives were being lost in New Orleans. On the news every night you hear, 'How come everybody forgot us?' said Joseph Manning, a firefighter from Washington, Pa., told The Dallas Morning News. We didn't forget. We're stuck in Atlanta drinking beer. William D. Vines, a former mayor of Fort Smith, Ark., helped deliver food and water to areas hit by the hurricane. But he said FEMA halted two trailer trucks carrying thousands of bottles of water to Camp Beauregard, near Alexandria, La., a staging area for the distribution of supplies. FEMA would not let the trucks unload, Mr. Vines said in an interview. The drivers were stuck for several days on the side of the road about 10 miles from Camp Beauregard. FEMA said we had to have a 'tasker number.' What in the world is a tasker number? I have no idea. It's just paperwork, and it's ridiculous." New York Times

Awareness of conditions

Michael Brown misspoke and said that he was not aware there were refugees in the Convention Center until Sept. 1, 2005 when Williams asked Brown a question about them live on the Nightly News. In an interview with Ted Koppel on Nightline on Sept. 1, 2005, Brown again stated that FEMA did not learn about the refugees "factually" until that day. This was a full 3 days after Katrina hit.

On September 2, CNN's Soledad O'Brien asked FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) head Mike Brown "How is it possible that we're getting better info than you were getting...we were showing live pictures of the people outside the Convention Center...also we'd been reporting that officials had been telling people to go to the Convention Center...I don't understand how FEMA cannot have this information." When pressed, Brown reluctantly admitted he had learned about the starving crowds at the Convention Center from news media reports. O'Brien then said to Brown, "FEMA's been on the ground four days, going into the fifth day, why no massive air drop of food and water...in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, they got food drops two days after the tsunami." [[35]

Once officials became aware of the conditions at the Convention Center a small amount of basic food supplies were diverted there by helicopter, but there were no large-scale deliveries until a truck convoy arrived at midday on Friday, September 2, due to the damage incurred by the still present flood and the [purported] attacks on those who have attempted to deliver aid. Federal officials have also underestimated the number of people converging on the convention center. Even as refugees are evacuated, more are arriving every hour. [36]

Blocking self-evacuation

In a live broadcast on the FOX News channel September 2, reporters Geraldo Rivera and Shepard Smith angrily explained that Superdome refugees were getting no information about evacuation progress, and very little in the way of emergency supplies including medicine, food, and water. Rivera yelled into the camera that the people should be allowed to "walk the hell out of here" along the Interstate, and Smith explained, from his location on the elevated highway, that a National Guard checkpoint at the on-ramp was turning people back, effectively trapping them in what Rivera termed "Hell on Earth". [37]

Interference with local efforts

The President of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, Aaron Broussard, appeared on the NBC television program Meet the Press on September 4. Broussard asserted that FEMA officials had actively interfered with relief efforts in his parish, saying that: Wal-Mart had agreed to provide bottled water, but FEMA officials turned the trucks back; the Coast Guard had agreed to provide fuel, but FEMA overruled the Coast Guard; and that a FEMA official had deactivated the Parish emergency communications teledata line. Broussard broke down in tears, saying that the mother of his Parish Homeland Security chief had died Friday in a St. Bernard Parish nursing home before anyone could rescue her, despite daily promises of evacuation given to her son; [38] later it emerged that this story was based on misinformation, and that the woman in question, a resident of the St. Rita nursing home, had died on Monday, Aug. 29, the day the hurricane hit, not the following Friday. [39]

"More than 50 civilian aircraft responding to separate requests for evacuations from hospitals and other agencies swarmed to the area a day after Katrina hit, but FEMA blocked their efforts. Aircraft operators complained that FEMA waved off a number of evacuation attempts, saying the rescuers were not authorized. 'Many planes and helicopters simply sat idle,' said Thomas Judge, president of the Assn. of Air Medical Services." Los Angeles Times

Censorship

On September 6 FEMA stopped allowing journalists to accompany rescuers searching for victims, saying they would take up too much space. At the same time FEMA requested that journalists stop taking pictures of dead bodies. Critics said this was censorship. [40] On September 9, Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who oversaw the federal relief effort in New Orleans, and Terry Ebbert, Louisiana's homeland security director said reporters will have "zero access" to body recovery operations. [41]. Later in the day, CNN filed suit. U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison issued an order (temporary as of 9 September) preventing officials from blocking media coverage. [42]

Browser-specific aid request form

The relief request form in the FEMA Web site turns people away if they are using any browser other than MSIE 6.0. This makes it more difficult for users of non-Windows operating systems to request aid, and has come under criticism from users of other systems and of browsers such as Mozilla Firefox.[43] In some cases, Internet access stations set up for the use of refugees by volunteers used Mac OS or Linux systems that proved incompatible with this site. There are reports that the site actually works in other browsers if they "spoof" the IE user agent, an indication that perhaps this problem is caused by an entirely unnecessary use of browser sniffing.

Lobbying contacts and FEMA

FEMA hired on September 7 a private disaster relief management company, Kenyon International, to collect bodies [44][45]. Located in Houston Texas, Kenyon International specializes in disaster relief and is well regarded being called in to provide services in major disasters across the world. However, accusations of cronyism were raised, as Kenyon International is a subsidiary of Service Corporation International (SCI). SCI is owned by funeral home magnate and Bush family friend Robert Waltrip. [46] In addition, SCI was at the center of a 1999 scandal when it was found that an SCI cemetery was recycling graves.[47][48] Additionally, Joe Allbaugh, connected with Waltrip and the SCI scandal, former FEMA chief, Bush campaign manager, has clients of his lobbying firm the Allbaugh Group bidding on reconstruction and cleanup contracts.[49] Allbaugh was college roommates with current FEMA director Mike Brown.[50]

Recommended charities

FEMA has been accused of giving undue prominence to Operation Blessing International, second on their list of recommended charities after the American Red Cross, given the controversial nature of Operation Blessing and Pat Robertson's political connections, the fact that he has admitted redirecting planes from relief for victims of the Rwandan genocide, in which 800,000 people were massacred, to his own private diamond mining enterprise, and the fact that Robertson is widely considered to a violent zealot for having called for the assasination of foreign leaders and ordering his followers to pray for the death of Supreme Court justices. Defenders of Operation Blessing point out that it ranks well on Charity Navigator, though the aggregated data used in their evaluations do not reflect the issues raised by critics.

Criticism from FEMA volunteers

At FEMA's request for firefighters for "community service and outreach", 2000 showed up in a staging area in an Atlanta hotel*. Many were highly trained and brought special equipment and were frustrated when they arrived, believing their skills would be used, or would better be used, for search and rescue operations. Newspaper reports say FEMA requested them to prepare for "austere conditions," and firefighters were quoted saying they had brought equipment according to FEMA's advice. These volunteers were disappointed when they found themselves watching training videos and attending seminars in a hotel, awaiting in some cases days to be deployed in secretarial or public relations jobs. Some firefighters called it a misallocation of resources, others were simply frustrated at the delay. [51][52]

*This is likely not the total number nor the only place where volunteers for this position were sent. More comprehensive information is not available at this time.

Removal of Michael Brown and his Resignation
Wikinews
Wikinews has news related to this article:

On September 9, Michael Chertoff, head of the Department of Homeland Security removed Michael D. Brown, head of FEMA (more formally known as the Under Secretary of Emergency Preparedness and Response at DHS), from immediate supervision of the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. Brown is to be pulled back to Washington, D.C. and further relief efforts will be headed up by Vice Admiral Thad W. Allen, chief of staff of the United States Coast Guard. [53] [54]

This came a week after President Bush praised Brown, stating "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job. The FEMA Director is working 24 -- they're working 24 hours a day." Chertoff avoided questions directed toward whether this was a step toward Brown being dismissed as the head of FEMA.

Wikinews
Wikinews has news related to this article:

A few days later, on September 12, 2005, Brown resigned his position, stating: "The focus has got to be on FEMA, what the people are trying to do down there."

Chertoff: FEMA 'overwhelmed'

Testifying before a special House committee on the government response to Hurricane Katrina on October 19, DHS director Chertoff said that FEMA had been "overwhelmed" by the scope of the disaster, and estimated that "80 percent or more of the problem" could be attributed to poor planning by FEMA. [55] Chertoff directly disagreed with Michael Brown's earlier testimony that state and local officials were responsible for the slow response to the hurricane, saying that he had experienced no problems in dealing with state and local officials and that Brown hadn't informed him of any problems .[56]

State and local government

Louisiana

Mayor Ray Nagin, Governor Kathleen Blanco, President George W. Bush and Senator David Vitter, September 2, 2005.
Enlarge
Mayor Ray Nagin, Governor Kathleen Blanco, President George W. Bush and Senator David Vitter, September 2, 2005.

State of Louisiana officials, including the governor and state emergency management leaders, have been widely criticized for delaying the ability of the federal government and outside agencies to respond.

Despite reports that Governor Blanco was reluctant to issue a mandatory evacuation order until President Bush called to personally ask that she give the order, it was actually issued by Mayor Nagin, and it is unlikely the Bush call was decisive in the making of the order.[57] At the August 28 press conference in which Nagin and Blanco ordered the evacuation of New Orleans, Blanco actually said that Bush had called "just before we walked into this room" to share his concerns and urge that the city be evacuated.[58]

New Orleans Mayor Nagin accused the governor of delaying federal rescue efforts: "I was ready to move today. The governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision. It would have been great if we could have [...] told the world that we had this all worked out. It didn't happen, and more people died."[59] A FEMA official has claimed that Gov. Blanco failed to submit a request for help in a timely manner, saying that Blanco did send President Bush a request asking for shelter and provisions, but didn't specifically ask for help with evacuations. One aide to the governor told ABC News that Blanco thought city officials were taking care of the evacuation in accord with the city's emergency plan.[60] The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has concluded, however, that Gov. Blanco did submit requests in a timely manner. [61]

The Washington Post reported that shortly before midnight on Friday, September 2, the Bush administration sent Gov. Blanco a request for federal takeover of the local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor, and that the request was rejected. President Bush has the legal authority to federalize National Guard units under the Insurrection Act, but did not do so. Regular troops are constrained by law from engaging in domestic law enforcement. By contrast, Guard troops, who are under the command of state governors, have no such constraints [62]. Gov Haley Barbour of Mississippi also rejected the federal request. The Insurrection Act has not been invoked over the objections of a governor since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. [63]

Fox News reported that the Red Cross had trucks with water, food, hygiene equipment, and other items ready for delivery to the Superdome and Convention Center, but the Louisiana Department of Homeland Security refused them passage out of concern that food and water would attract more people to those facilities.[64] The deputy director of Louisiana's Homeland Security Department, Colonel Jay Mayeaux, has stated that he asked the Red Cross to delay relief operations for 24 hours for logistical reasons, and by the time that was up the evacuations had already begun.[65]

Media Matters gives a significantly different analysis of this incident, with the starting point that the Red Cross is, by law, a federal instrument under FEMA's direction and that it is unclear what directions were given, who gave them and for what reasons. [66] Responding to further reports published on September 11, Media Matters noted: "Most important, all three of the media outlets' reports made a glaring omission: They ignored the fact that the federal government should have been coordinating and overseeing relief efforts. If the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had deemed it necessary for the Red Cross to be in New Orleans, FEMA should have bypassed the state officials who were purportedly preventing the relief organization from going in."[67]

On September 13, 2005, ABC News reported that William Jefferson a Democratic Representative for Louisiana from the New Orleans area had misused National Guard resources to check on his personal belongings and property on September 2, during the height of the rescue efforts. A military source reports that he used his political position to bypass military baricades and delay two heavy trucks, a helicopter, and several National Guard troops for over an hour to stop at his home and retrieve "a laptop computer, three suitcases, and a box about the size of a small refrigerator". [68]

New Orleans city government

A New Orleans police officer likened the conditions to Somalia, saying, "It's a war zone, and they're not treating it like one." Officers had been giving up after working days straight with little or no support. The convention center conditions were described as appalling, having become surrounded by refuse, human feces and even corpses. The downtown Charity Hospital has had a number of critically ill patients die as a result of delays in evacuations. Federal officials were apparently unaware of the conditions in central New Orleans until late Thursday, September 1. The flooding of New Orleans occurred after the worst of Hurricane Katrina's fury had been spent and the storm itself moved further north. The destruction wrought by Katrina, and the flooding thereafter, severely damaged the roads and other infrastructure needed to deliver relief.

According to The New York Times the police superintendent has said, "Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons," although he conceded they had no plans to relieve security guards of theirs.[69]

Alleged Corruption of the New Orleans Levee Board

A NBC News investigation alleges that the Levee Board had mismanaged funds and also "paid more attention to marinas, gambling and business than to maintaining the levees. [70] Levee Board President Jim Huey defended the spending by mentioning that a separate account is for business activities, which includes recreational projects. "Of 11 construction projects now on the board's Web site, only two are related to flood control."

Failure to use city buses
Aerial view of flooded New Orleans school buses.
Enlarge
Aerial view of flooded New Orleans school buses.

Louisiana state officials have been critical of New Orleans' local leaders for failing to execute adequate evacuation plans prior to the storm, which would theoretically have lessened the need for later rescue and relief. The City of New Orleans' Hurricane Preparedness Plan, a plan that had been initiated by Mayor Nagin after the city was threatened by Hurricane Ivan the year before, and a plan that was not yet complete,[71] called for use of all available forms of transportation to evacuate those who had no means to do so of their own. Much criticism has been aimed at the city for not using 500 school and New Orleans Regional Transit Authority buses to move poor and elderly victims who had no cars to the above sea level Superdome and out of their below sea level homes, where they might drown. The yellow school buses have been shown partially submerged in widely circulated news photos.[72][73][74][75] Critics said the school buses were never called upon, although news reports had shown buses taking elderly and vulnerable persons out of the city, and city buses were run continuously Sunday to ferry residents who could not or did not get out of the city to "refuges of last resort" like the Superdome. The school buses were owned by a private company, and were not under the control of the city, but rather were used under contract to the school district in Orleans Parish. The city had no ability to coerce or force privately-employed school bus drivers, many of whom were likely evacuating their own families, to evacuate New Orleans residents. Nor were there security personnel or medical professionals previously designated to accompany the buses and their passengers. In addition, there were no shelters set up to receive tens of thousands of bus passengers, nor were there specific plans drawn up as to the direction that these buses should head. And finally, given the capacity of the buses and the number of residents still in the city, only a small percentage of those left behind would have been able to leave on those buses.

Gov. Blanco's office later said that FEMA had told her office and city government on the day of the storm not to use city school buses to evacuate once the storm passed as they were not air conditioned and the agency had 500 private coaches ready. It turned out that those buses had been in a staging area out of state and did not arrive until September 1, long after they were needed. In the meantime her office was able to use National Guard troops to drive an initial batch of 68 buses under the state's control into the city. Eventually the state evacuated almost 16,000 people on school buses from around the state before the commercial buses FEMA had promised arrived as had been promised on August 29th.[76]

Mayor Nagin was livid about the response thus far given the seriously deteriorating conditions in the city and said that state and federal agencies were "thinking small" in the face of a massive crisis.[77]

Jefferson Parish and Gretna, LA

The New York Times reports that officers from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, the Gretna City Police Department and the Crescent City Connection police blocked the Crescent City Connection to block evacuees crossing the Mississippi from New Orleans into their area. [78] Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson told UPI: "There was no food, water or shelter in Gretna City. We did not have the wherewithal to deal with these people. If we had opened the bridge our city would have looked like New Orleans does now - looted, burned and pillaged." [79]

Reluctance to accept foreign assistance

Several foreign leaders have expressed frustration that they couldn’t get a go-ahead from the Bush Administration to administer help. President Bush said on the ABC News program Good Morning America that the United States could fend for itself; "I do expect a lot of sympathy and perhaps some will send cash dollars," Bush said of foreign governments.[80]

The immediate response from many nations was to ask to be allowed to send in self-sustaining SAR teams to assist in evacuating those remaining in the city. France had a range of aircraft, two naval ships and a hospital ship standing ready in the Caribbean. Russia offered four jets with rescuers, equipment, food and medicine, but their help was first declined before later being accepted. Germany had offered airlifting, vaccination, water purification, medical supplies including German air force hospital planes, emergency electrical power and pumping services; their offer was noted and they received a formal request three days later. Similarly, Sweden had been waiting for a formal request to send a military cargo plane with three complete GSM systems, water sanitation equipment, and experts. And the Netherlands offered help out of the island Aruba in the Caribbean Sea. [81] [82]

Reluctance to accept domestic assistance

It is not yet known why FEMA refused assistance from Amtrak[83][84][85], the Coast Guard[86], the Navy[87], the City of Chicago[88], morticians[89], citizen flotillas[90], and first responders across the nation.[91]

International criticism

British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott told The Guardian: "The horrific flood of New Orleans brings home to us the concern of leaders of countries like the Maldives, whose nations are at risk of disappearing completely. There has been resistance by the US government to Kyoto - which I believe is wrong."[92] Ted Sluijter, press spokesman for Neeltje Jans, the public park where the Delta Works are located, also speaking to the Guardian commented: "I don't want to sound overly critical, but it's hard to imagine that (the damage caused by Katrina) could happen in a Western country, It seemed like plans for protection and evacuation weren't really in place, and once it happened, the coordination was poor."[93]

In China, the party newspaper, the People's Daily, criticized President Bush's handling of the crisis, calling the slow response time to the unfolding tragedy a "negligence of duty". While this might be expected from such a source, these sentiments have been echoed in the United States.[94]

Protection vs. evacuation

There are also major concerns about the Government suspending search and rescue efforts to focus on protecting businesses from looters. U.S. President George W. Bush has said that saving lives should come first, but he and the local New Orleans Government have also stated that they will have zero tolerance for looters. In response to a question about the President's zero tolerance policy, White House press secretary Scott McClellan affirmed that looters should not be allowed to take food, water or shoes, that they should get those things through some other way.[95] Gov. Blanco warned that troops had orders to shoot to kill, saying, "These troops are fresh back from Iraq, well trained, experienced, battle tested and under my orders to restore order in the streets." She went on to say, "They have M-16s and they are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill and they are more than willing to do so if necessary and I expect they will." [96]

See also: Civil disturbances and military action in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina

Race and class issues

Exacerbating the vulnerability of the poorest residents

African-American leaders and others have expressed outrage at what they see as the apparent neglect of the poor and/or black residents of the affected region. Two-thirds of the residents of the city are black. This is generally attributed to decades of white flight. In addition, New Orleans is one of America's poorer cities, with more than 25% of residents and 40% of children living at or below the poverty line. Within the city itself, the poorest, who are mostly African American, tended to live in the lowest parts that are most vulnerable to flooding.

In the Lower Ninth Ward, which is almost completely submerged, 98% of residents are black and more than a third live in poverty. Many of the poor depend on welfare, Social Security or other public assistance checks, which they receive on the first of each month, meaning that Hurricane Katrina made landfall just when many of the poor had exhausted their resources. Thus, many of the city's poor simply couldn't afford to flee the city before the hurricane struck. Reports were that many people stayed in their homes rather than evacuating because they didn't want to miss receiving their upcoming checks.

Speaking at a press conference from a relief center in Lafayette, Laura Bush explained that the poor are always the main victims of natural disasters. "This is what happens when there's a natural disaster of this scope," Mrs. Bush said. "The poorer people are usually in the neighborhoods that are the lowest or the most exposed or the most vulnerable. Their housing is the most vulnerable to natural disaster. And that is just always what happens." [97]

The Reverend Jesse Jackson asked why the President has not named blacks to top positions in the federal response to the disaster, particularly when the majority of victims remaining stranded in New Orleans are black: "How can blacks be locked out of the leadership, and trapped in the suffering? It is that lack of sensitivity and compassion that represents a kind of incompetence." He has also said that racism was partly to blame for the deadly aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.[98]

Accusations that race was a factor in the slow response

One source of blame for the slowness of the federal response is based on the fact that poor urban blacks have not supported the administration of George W. Bush. Rev. Jesse Jackson, upon visiting Louisiana, stated, "Many black people feel that their race, their property conditions and their voting patterns have been a factor in the response." [99] When federal response did start arriving, much of it was focused on stopping looters, some of whom had reportedly delayed the delivery of vital relief by attacking authorities attempting to conduct relief operations. Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco sent a directed warning that incoming guard troops "have M-16s and they're locked and loaded ... [and they] know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so, and I expect they will."

Commentator Lou Dobbs of CNN, has claimed that local officials should bear some responsibility saying that "the city of New Orleans is 70% black, its mayor is black, its principle power structure is black, and if there is a failure to the black Americans, who live in poverty and in the city of New Orleans, those officials have to bear much of the responsibility."

Former Mayor of Atlanta and UN Ambassador Andrew Young, who was born in New Orleans, had a more nuanced reaction to the disaster:

"I was surprised and not surprised...It's not just a lack of preparedness. I think the easy answer is to say that these are poor people and black people and so the government doesn't give a damn...there might be some truth to that. But I think we've got to see this as a serious problem of the long-term neglect of an environmental system on which our nation depends." [100]

Characterizations of "looting"

In addition, there has been controversy over what some said was racially prejudiced captioning of photographs featured on Yahoo's newswire. Criticism began after Yahoo featured very similar images of some New Orleans residents carrying items through waist-deep flooded streets. One image showed a young African-American man carrying a box of sodas and a full garbage bag "after looting a grocery store," while the other featured an apparently Caucasian man and woman, both wearing backpacks, carrying a bag of bread "after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store" [101] [102] The two images were taken from separate news sources, the Associated Press (AP), and the Agence France-Presse (AFP) respectively. Some saw the terms "looting" and "finding" as racially charged, suggesting that the reporters were introducing prejudice into their captions.

After complaints, Yahoo removed the offending images and issued an apology. Yahoo claimed no responsibility for the content as, in their words, "we [Yahoo] present the photos and their captions as written, edited and distributed by the news services with no additional editing at Yahoo News." [103]

The photographer who captioned the AFP photo in question had this response to the controversy:

"The people were swimming in chest deep water, and there were other people in the water, both white and black. I looked for the best picture. There were a million items floating in the water — we were right near a grocery store that had 5+ feet of water in it. It had no doors. The water was moving, and the stuff was floating away. These people were not ducking into a store and busting down windows to get electronics. They picked up bread and Cokes that were floating in the water. They would have floated away anyhow."

This would seem to indicate that the original premise that there were racial overtones to the captioning of the separate photos was false, and that the photos were taken in different contexts. [104]

In an interview on WWL-TV Oliver Thomas, a member of the New Orleans City Council, said that communities in Louisiana had started refusing to accept evacuees from New Orleans. He blamed this on the media portrayal of those who had remained in the city as looters.

Characterizations of displaced persons as "refugees"

Refugee vs. 'Evacuee: The term for the displaced, refugees, that is usually associated with a strong political connotation, appeared 5 times more frequently in the global media [105] than the more neutral 'evacuees.' This was also cited as racially motivated by some of the black leadership. [106] Accordingly, most of the major media outlets in the U.S. eliminated the usage of ‘refugees’ with a few exceptions, most notably, the New York Times.

Political criticism from artists

During a September 2 NBC Telethon to raise funds for hurricane victims, musician Kanye West stated, "George Bush doesn't care about black people," and that the U.S. is determined "to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible." He additionally said that, "They've given them permission to go down and shoot us." [107]. West also commented on the characterization of blacks as looters, stating, "If you see a black family, it says they're looting. See a white family, it says they're looking for food." [108]

On September 16, 2005, rap group Public Enemy released a protest song titled Hell No We Ain't Alright, written by Chuck D and featuring Flava Flav. The song featured samples of Ray Nagin's speech calling for help, and harshly criticized the policies of the Bush Administration. The song also criticised the characterization of blacks as looters and suggested that the recovery will be more difficult because "help is stuck in Iraq". The refrain is "New Orleans in the morning, afternoon, and night/Hell No We Ain't Alright".

Accusations of discrimination against non-U.S. citizens

Some British tourists trapped in a New Orleans hotel have accused the authorities of preferential treatment for Americans during the evacuation as Katrina approached. [109] Australian tourists report a similar experience, compounded by US refusal to admit consular officers to the New Orleans area and failure to notify the Australian embassy that one missing tourist was in a correctional facility on minor charges. [110] [111] South African tourists report that tourist buses were commandeered by federal officials, and the tourists told to walk back. The tourists were later fired upon by officers on their way back to safety. [112]

Speaking about foreign tourists, Mayor Ray Nagin told his 1:30PM press conference on 27 August: "The only thing I can say to them is I hope they have a hotel room, and it's a least on the third floor and up. Unfortunately, unless they can rent a car to get out of town, which I doubt they can at this point, they're probably in the position of riding the storm out." [113] Many tourists were later expelled by their hotels.

These reports contrast the callous treatment by the authorities with the generosity of the American people. Irish tourists were touched by the "infinite kindness" shown to them by "complete strangers". [114]

Accusations of interference with reporting by the media

Several news sources have reported that FEMA is not permitting reporters to enter the affected areas or accompany rescue workers on missions.[115] FEMA has also issued a request to news media to not report pictures of dead bodies.[116] On 9 September U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore announced a zero-access policy. CNN sought a court order prohibting the US government from restricting media in this way. The court granted a temporary restraining order and the US government then agreed to a permanent consent order.[117]

Public response

All levels of government have been criticized for their actions or inaction prior to and in the aftermath of Katrina. Public opinion seems to be getting more negative over time. A public opinion poll conducted by Gallup on 5 and 6 September 2005, found the following:

  • Who to Blame
    • 38% said "no one is to blame for the problems in New Orleans after the hurricane"
    • 25% said "state and local officials" are "most responsible for the problems in New Orleans after the hurricane"
    • 18% said "federal agencies" are "most responsible"
    • 13% said President Bush is "most responsible"
    • 6% had no opinion
  • Whether officials should be fired
    • 29% said that "top officials in the federal agencies responsible for handling emergencies should be fired"
    • 63% said they should not be fired
    • 8% had no opinion
  • Great job
    • 10% said President Bush has done a "great" job in "responding to the hurricane and subsequent flooding"
    • 7% said state and local officials in Louisiana have done a "great" job
    • 8% said federal government agencies responsible for handling emergencies have done a "great" job
  • Good job
    • 25% said President Bush has done a "good" job in "responding to the hurricane and subsequent flooding"
    • 30% said state and local officials in Louisiana have done a "good" job
    • 27% said federal government agencies responsible for handling emergencies have done a "good" job
  • Neither good nor bad job
    • 21% said President Bush has done a "neither good nor bad" job in "responding to the hurricane and subsequent flooding"
    • 23% said state and local officials in Louisiana have done a "neither good nor bad" job
    • 20% said federal government agencies responsible for handling emergencies have done a "neither good nor bad" job
  • Bad job
    • 18% said President Bush has done a "bad" job in "responding to the hurricane and subsequent flooding"
    • 20% said state and local officials in Louisiana have done a "bad" job
    • 20% said federal government agencies responsible for handling emergencies have done a "bad" job
  • Terrible job
    • 24% said President Bush has done a "terrible" job in "responding to the hurricane and subsequent flooding"
    • 15% said state and local officials in Louisiana have done a "terrible" job
    • 22% said federal government agencies responsible for handling emergencies have done a "terrible" job

A public opinion poll conducted by CBS on 8 September 2005, found:

  • BUSH'S HANDLING OF RESPONSE TO KATRINA
    • 58% said Disapprove
    • 38% said Approve
    • 4% said Don't know
  • BUSH'S RESPONSE TO KATRINA WAS…
    • 1% said Too quick
    • 65% said Too slow
    • 32% said About the right speed
  • WAS THE RESPONSE TO KATRINA ADEQUATE?
  • Federal government
    • 20% Yes
    • 77% No
  • FEMA
    • 24% Yes
    • 70% No
  • State and local government
    • 24% Yes
    • 70% No


Congressional Investigation

The Washington Post reported on September 7, 2005, that in an apparent attempt to control the political fallout from the destruction of much of New Orleans, the U.S. Congress would form a rare joint House-Senate investigative commission, but that unlike the bipartisan 9/11 Commission, a majority of the committee would be Republicans, and that Democrats lack subpoena authority [118].

See also

External links

Emergency Plans

Public Policy

News Reports and Commentary

Personal tools
In other languages