Where trust is given, there must be accountability. The response to Hurricane Katrina was initially pitiful. And, although there is plenty of blame to be passed around, today we will focus on the federal government.
Sept. 14, President Bush made an admission at a White House press conference and said “Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government to the extent that the federal government didn’t do its job right. I take full responsibility,” according to National Public Radio’s Morning Edition.
Hurricane Katrina hit the United States on Aug. 29.
Before that, on Aug. 26, Governor Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana, declared a state of emergency. That same day the Gulf Coast states began requesting troop assistance from the Pentagon, according to the Department of Defense.
Aug. 27, Blanco asked President Bush to declare a federal state of emergency in Louisiana and said, “I have determined that this incident is of such severity and … is beyond the capabilities of the State … and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives…” according to the office of the governor.
It’s speculated that Blanco had fussed over how much power she was willing to relinquish, but it’s still evident that she needed help.
That same day the Federal Emergency Management Agency was given full authority to respond to the disaster according to www.whitehouse.gov, the official White House Web site.
Aug. 28, it was speculated that the levees protecting New Orleans would not hold. The mayor ordered an evacuation, and Dr. Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center, warned President Bush about the levees: “We were briefing them way before landfall … It’s not like this was a surprise,” according to the St. Petersburg Times.
The National Weather Service predicted Katrina and said it would “make human suffering incredible by modern standards.” So why, then, did the response by our federal government take five days after repeated warnings?
Aug. 29, Katrina hit land at 7 a.m. That same morning the president was in Arizona talking about Medicare, but he did take the time to make a very important phone call to Michael Chertoff, secretary of Homeland Security. They discussed immigration according to www.whitehouse.gov.
That same morning the president shared a piece of birthday cake with John McCain, a senator from Arizona.
At 11 a.m. Michael Brown, then director of FEMA, (he resigned directly after the handling of this disaster), made a request to Chertoff for 1,000 workers to be sent to the Gulf Coast, according to the Associated Press.
Brown had two days before the hurricane to request assistance, but he waited four hours after the hurricane hit to do it. This man was nominated by the president and then confirmed by Congress to be the director of FEMA.
On Aug. 30, there was practically no federal presence, and Gov. Blanco made another request to Bush for assistance and said, “Mr. President, we need your help. We need everything you’ve got,” according to Newsweek. Bush immediately got onto Air force One, and flew to California, according to whitehouse.gov.
Also, Lawrence Di Rita, Pentagon spokesperson, said that the states had adequate National Guard units for their need, directly contradicting a report by AP that quoted New Orleans Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson saying, “The looting is out of control. We’re using exhausted, scarce police to control looting when they should be used for search and rescue…”
That same day, Bush was playing guitar with country singer Mark Willis.
Aug. 31, according to the New York Times, the president announced that he would fly to Louisiana to help coordinate the efforts of 14 federal agencies involved in the relief effort.
At the beginning of this disaster, Aug. 26, the Gulf Coast states began requesting additional National Guard troops. They didn’t arrive until about this time, four days later, according to The Boston Globe.
It was reported in Scroll last week that the president cut his vacation short to respond to Katrina. Well, it was about time.
It only took him two days.
There are plenty of other preventable mistakes, but as the introduction to this article said, there is plenty of blame to dish out among many. However, now is the time to focus on the subject of blame, so that history doesn’t inadvertently dilute this failure when everything is happy and back to normal.
While there’s nothing the president could have done on the day of the storm, look at the time he had to help in preparation for the storm. Think of the moral support he could have been giving local leaders and citizens. He and many others failed us on the federal level.
Citizens need to visit www.senate.gov or www.house.gov in order to e-mail their leaders about the need for an independent bipartisan investigation that will prove which leaders are responsible and which leaders should be held accountable.
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