Playing the blame game: Hurricane victims failed by US leaders
AT every turn, political leaders failed Katrina’s victims. They didn’t strengthen the levees. They ceded the streets to marauding looters. They left dead bodies to rot or bloat. Thousands suffered or died for lack of water, food and hope. Who’s at fault?
There’s plenty of blame to go around - the White House, US Congress, federal agencies, local governments, police and even residents of the Gulf Coast who refused orders to evacuate. But all the finger-pointing misses the point: politicians and the people they lead too often ignore danger signs until a crisis hits.
It wasn’t a secret that levees built to keep New Orleans from flooding could not withstand a major hurricane, but government leaders never found the money to fully shore up the network of earthen, steel and concrete barriers.
Both the Bush and Clinton administrations proposed budgets that low-balled the needs.
Just last year, the US Army’s Corps of Engineers sought $105 million (€83.8m) for hurricane and flood programmes in New Orleans. The White House slashed the request to about $40m (€32m). US Congress finally approved $42.2m (€33.7m), less than half of the agency’s request.
Yet the lawmakers and Bush agreed to a $286.4 billion (€228.4bn) pork-laden highway bill that included more than 6,000 pet projects for lawmakers. Congress spent money on dust control for Arkansas roads, a warehouse on the Erie Canal and a $231m (€184.3m) bridge to a small, uninhabited Alaskan island.
How could Washington spend $231m on a bridge to nowhere - and not find $42m for hurricane and flood projects in New Orleans? It’s a matter of power and politics.
Alaska is represented by Republican Representative Don Young, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, and Republican Senator Ted Stevens, a senior member of the all-important Senate Appropriations Committee. Louisiana’s delegation holds far less sway.
Once the hurricane hit, relief trickled into the Gulf Coast. Even Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) director Michael Brown, whose agency is in charge of disaster response, pronounced the initial results unacceptable.
Thousands of National Guard troops were ordered to the Gulf Coast, but their ranks have been drastically thinned by the war in Iraq.
On top of all this, Katrina is one of the worst natural disasters ever to hit the US. The best leaders running the most efficient agencies would have been sharply challenged.
“Look at all they’ve had to deal with,” former President Bill Clinton told CNN. “I’m telling you, nobody every thought it would happen like this.”
That’s not true. Experts had predicted for years that a major hurricane would eventually hit New Orleans, swamping the levees and filling the bowl-shaped city with polluted water. Yet even Mr Bush insisted nobody anticipated the breach of the levees in a serious storm.
The politicians are doing what they do in time of crisis - shifting the blame.
If it’s not the Republicans’ fault, perhaps some in Washington would like to blame New Orleans itself. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, a Republican from Illinois, questioned whether a city that lies below sea level should be rebuilt. “That doesn’t make sense to me,” he said.
But for anybody living - or dying - in the devastated region, there are far too many villains to name.
Thus, Americans are doing what people do when government lets them down - they’re turning to each other. Donations are pouring into charities. Internet sites are being used to find relatives. Residents of far-off states are opening their homes to victims.
The community spirit is reminiscent of the September 11, 2001, attacks. So is the second-guessing. It will happen again after the next crisis. You’ve heard the warnings: a cataclysmic California earthquake, another terrorist strike, a flu pandemic, a nuclear plant meltdown, a tsunami, the failure to address mounting US debt - and on and on.
Will the public and its leaders be better prepared next time?
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
