Ten days after hurricane Katrina: interim critique

Ten days ago the hurricane struck. I see three broad areas of criticism about the hurricane Katrina disaster: I) Preparation, II) Response, and III) Political smoke and mirrors. Here I am leaving aside the painful social justice questions.

What needs to be done now? Besides investigating Dept of Homeland Security and FEMA (and local govt), here’s my stab at five short- and near-term steps:

1. Put a temporary hold on pumping the heavily contaminated NOLA water, assess risk of further spreading pollutants, move in portable treatment and/or filtering capacity. {See new post on bioremediation.}
2. Investigate and resolve conflicts-of-interest in Katrina-related contracts, including Halliburton work
3. Fire Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. {Update: FEMA's Brown has been recalled from relief operations.}
4. Separate FEMA from DHS. {Update: Hillary proposes. HT Town Crier.}
5. Get an independent status report on prevention and planning for major environmental and natural disaster risks.
6. Public agencies are needed to handle large scale risks. We need agencies set up to be accountable, not corrupt, competent, not handcuffed.

I. Critique of emergency preparedness

A. Government, business and community leaders have a responsibility to protect cities from destruction. Mayors, local leaders, and state officials bear much responsibility. Nonetheless, owing largely to the 9/11 attacks, the Bush Administration consolidated emergency planning and preparedness under the Department of Homeland Security. Brad DeLong (Financial Times) on the Bush Administration.

B. Despite years of warnings about the danger of a category 5 hurricane, the levees were not adequately reinforced. (Despite infamous Bush photo-op.) If I recall correctly, federal monies were approved -- but the Administration scuttled it (and the city). Urban Economics on investing in levees (investments in natural disaster risk mitigation represent a type of 'redistribution' because the poor are most likely to face mortality risk from such shocks.").

C. Is it sustainable to build and safely maintain a city in NOLA’s situation? Don’t know. But it is irresponsible to leave so many, including so many poor, so vulnerable. Economic growth and greed are no excuse. “Levee improvements were deferred in recent years even after congressional approval, reportedly prompting EPA staffers to dub flooded New Orleans "Lake George."” The real costs of a culture of greed by Robert Scheer. Hat tip to Torat haLev.

D. As Mark Schleifstein reports, DHS and FEMA were briefed in advance by the National Hurricane Center, about the threat of Katrina. Yes, both FEMA's Mike Brown and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff knew about the coming danger.

E. In sum, Roger Pielke correctly names this a massive and unforgivable intelligence failure by DHS. How could this happen after 9/11? He concludes:

“Chertoff and Brown are the respective heads of … the federal agencies with lead responsibility for being prepared for and responding to disasters. … This commentary is not a cheap political shot at the Bush Administration. … there has been a significant policy failure on their watch. … Under this new [9/11] reorganization, DHS has comprehensively failed its first test. Congress needs to find out why, and fix it. We will have more disasters, that is for sure. The time to start asking hard questions is right now.”

II. Critique of crisis response to hurricane Katrina

A. The evacuation was inadequate, especially in the lack of options for the poor, sick and others without cars.

Last September, a Category 5 hurricane battered the small island of Cuba with 160-mile-per-hour winds. More than 1.5 million Cubans were evacuated to higher ground ahead of the storm. Although the hurricane destroyed 20,000 houses, no one died. From Truth out thanks to Machopicasso at Daily Kos

Prof. Susan Cutter (via NYT): "... New Orleans' mayor should have ordered a mandatory evacuation earlier on Thursday or Friday. She said it would take at least two to three days to fully evacuate New Orleans, a city surrounded by water with few exit routes. The city's hurricane plan said it might take 72 hours for residents to leave." (HT Env. Econ. on economics of evacuation)

B. Unforgivably poor arrangements for a safe haven shelter for those left behind and not evacuated.

C. The failures by FEMA list (with Hat tip to Paul at Eyeteeth). Also:

"In early 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the US, including a terrorist attack on New York City." BBC report on FEMA thanks again to Machopicasso at Daily Kos

Radly Balko's list of government failures (HT Dispatches). Thinking Progress.

D. Despite such incompetence, FEMA is too easy a scapegoat. FEMA has been corrupted and cut down by the Bush Administration. (HT to Brad DeLong) Rather than collude with Bush-Republicans in undermining the governmental sector, it's crucial to demand that serious public servants get serious funding for risk prevention and emergency management. For this reason, I recommend that the political momentum now ought to be spent on remaking FEMA as an independent agency, not one filled by cronies and hacks. (Maybe DHS can be re-engineered, too?)

E. The pumping out of NOLA has begun. But without any public participation or even EPA input, apparently. EPA has been excluded from NOLA clean-up management?! With New Orleans a stagnant pool of toxins, bacteria and fuel, how can they stiff arm EPA? Reportedly, because EPA was critical about the 9/11 response… (Cp. Effect Measure here.) (AP story on EPA, CDC view.) Pause the pumps -- let the experts and public at least briefly evaluate this shifting around of pollutants -- quickly get in place portable treatment and/or filtering.

{9-8 update} "Michael McDaniel, the Louisiana secretary of environmental quality, said it was "simply unfeasible" to attempt to filter the water before flowing it into the lake. The EPA granted the Army Corps of Engineers a waiver from treating floodwater before sending it into Lake Pontchartrain." Read more.

Hence, EPA is now engaged... and granting a waiver. Any public input here?

F. Where was Bush? Cheney? (Condi Rice?) In a storm, the pilot should take the helm. A businessman’s viewpoint:

"As a retired VP of a multinational corporation, formerly involved in disaster recovery planning and preparedness, I can say with confidence that any responsible CEO with a factory in Katrina's path would have been burning up the communication lines not later than Sunday morning, when a Cat. 5 landfall was expected, to ensure that all measures were in place to protect employees, and would have had teams from other sites standing by to go in immediately after the storm with relief and recovery provisions. The fact that Chertoff had not activated all of his resources by noon Sunday says clearly that he is not qualified for his post and totally failed his responsibility. The fact that Pres. Bush had not checked what actions Chertoff was initiating before late Sunday at the latest, also calls his competence into question. Local authorities with experience, like in Florida, can be left to deal with a Cat 3 hurricane on their own. An expected Cat. 5 should have had federal gov't attention from the top as soon as it was expected, even without the added risk of New Orlean's levees. Waiting to see if the bullet would be dodged is totally unacceptable. Both Bush and Chertoff should resign.” Murray Duffin

G. Five cogent points on The public choice economics of crisis management (Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution) with link to scholarship, incl Israelis. It's not wise to privatize or stick to business as usual. The agencies that handle environmental and other major accidents need to be accountable from a technical, a democratic and an ethical standpoint. President Bush will not be impeached over Katrina. Nonetheless, since Bush takes too lightly and fumbles his duties to public service, perhaps those vital duties and authorities can be shifted to independent, competent and honest leaders.

III. Critique of the political cover-up and ploys of the Bush Administration.

A. Here’s a superb (mis-)management and political timeline by Think Progress of Katrina and aftermath. Must read. (HT Cervantes.)

B. Failing to save lives, the Bush Administration excels in saving its own skin(s) during public relations emergencies. E.g., photo op with firefighters.

C. Dissembling and falsehoods. See, among Jewish bloggers, esp. Dov Bear (and here) and The Town Crier.

Well... my sketch of the landscape. I hope to color in some perspectives from Jewish law, add links to more data and analysis, suggestions welcome.

Kol tuv,

Kaspit

Comments

[revere]

Kaspit: great job. Very complete and to the point.

[LR aka Qplagh]

I'm responding to your comment on my livejournal.I was linked to your blog via Hungry Blues, which I found via bitchphd. sometime earlier this summer.
One LJ I have linked to in my LJ has a huge, and very comprehensive linklist:
http://livejournal.come/users/jmhm/1408726.html
I don't know if he's added to it, but it contains a lot of various links.
I think his heading for it is "Lake George Informational Links".

[deppi]

"Where was Bush? Cheney? (Condi Rice?) In a storm, the pilot should take the helm. A businessman’s viewpoint:...The fact that Chertoff had not activated all of his resources by noon Sunday says clearly that he is not qualified for his post and totally failed his responsibility. The fact that Pres. Bush had not checked what actions Chertoff was initiating before late Sunday at the latest, also calls his competence into question. Local authorities with experience, like in Florida, can be left to deal with a Cat 3 hurricane on their own. An expected Cat. 5 should have had federal gov't attention from the top as soon as it was expected, even without the added risk of New Orlean's levees. Waiting to see if the bullet would be dodged is totally unacceptable. Both Bush and Chertoff should resign."

The AP reported that Bush was the one who issued the order for mandatory evacuation before the storm hit. Fema coordinated with the Red Cross to deliver provisions. The Red Cross says that they down in NO with supplies before the storm, and were turned away by the State Homeland Security - a state organization, unrelated to the Feds. The State said that if they allowed the RedCross to supply the folks at the Superdome with provisions, people would go to the Superdome rather than evacuate (ask the state what the point is of having an evacuation center without provisions, or why anyone would think that a convention center with MREs would be an attractive place to wait out the storm).
Your businessman should do more factchecking.

[kaspit]

Criticisms of the Bush Administration continued to be supported by the evidence. Deppi you cite 3 "media spins" now being touted by political PR specialists and then covered by reporters and esp Fox. For a debunking, or at least to give yourself a more neutral grounding, please see:

1. Was "Bush the one who issued the order..."? No. He called up the Gov. Blanco right before the press conference. "BLANCO: I want to reiterate what the mayor has said. This is a very dangerous time. Just before we walked into this room, President Bush called and told me to share with all of you that he is very concerned about the citizens. He is concerned about the impact that this hurricane would have on our people. And he asked me to please ensure that there would be a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans." Source, also wikipedia.

2. Was the Red Cross held up by the state? This idea has been promoted heavily by Rush Limbaugh, Fox, etc. For more clarity, see wikipedia, citing this source among others. Via links above, you'll see many claims about FEMA mismanaging relief.

With mistakes of the magnitude we have seen before and after the hurriance, both local/state and federal authorities have much to answer for. We can't simply read either the mainstream media or blogs for unbiased information. Reporting has to viewed with a critical eye, esp since so many professional PR folks have been mobilized to shape media (and blog) analysis. I suppose we can't help but be shaped by our own presuppositions about the key figures. In recent daf yomi, there was a sugya (talmudic pericope) about giving the benefit of the doubt (chaf zechut). In addition, moral critique is shaped by our expectations of both legal duties as well as reasonable and responsible conduct. It remains my judgment, pending further information, that (1) the flaws in evacuation can be attributed mostly to local/state officials, (2) the inadequate construction of levees is due primarily to federal agencies and leaders, (3) once flooding began, the federal response was unacceptable slow and mishandled, and (4) the hurricane threat and then virtual destruction of a U.S. city required a far stronger, immediate and hands-on response by top administration officials, including the President.

Kaspit