Scrutinizing Katrina's Disaster Response

By Paul Kerstein

September 06, 2005 — CSO — In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it’s hard to forget the scenes of stranded New Orleans residents, waiting for help – in the Superdome, outside the city’s convention center, on top of their island-like homes -- for what seemed like eons. Second day, no help. Third day, lawlessness ensues amid floods. Fourth day, more chaos, food and water scarce. It’s easy to understand why Mayor C. Ray Nagin was screaming on the radio for federal help that he said wasn’t showing up in force.

That’s an immediate response. In this media-saturated age, we’ve come to expect fast action for public crises. The deadly effects of Katrina, a Category 4 hurricane that ripped through the Gulf coast, flattened communities around Biloxi and Gulfport, Miss., and Mobile, Ala., and flooded New Orleans, appeared to many Americans like they were happening in a different country. This time, though, it’s the United Nations offering aid to the United States, with Australia, Japan and other nations pledging financial assistance.

Louisiana authorities have warned there could be thousands of deaths from the storm and flood. As the toll rises, and we learn more about the projected economic impact in lost energy production and resulting unemployment, there will be political leaders and managers in the homeland security establishment who face questions about how this response went and how it could have been better. This is not a new kind of exercise for either emergency response agencies or for corporate security executives, who have to think about threats and practice responses. But in this case, there will more scrutiny than usual, in the coming weeks and long afterward. Among the directions an inquiry could take:

* Why were the New Orleans levees inadequate to prevent a flood?

Six weeks before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, U.S. News and World Report wrote that "the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is at least a decade away from upgrading" New Orleans’ levees to sustain a category 4 or 5 hurricane. This statement would be easier to dismiss if, as the article points out, the threat to New Orleans from a flood wasn’t atop the list of worries for experts. The American Red Cross ranked such a flood threat among the nation’s deadliest natural disasters-in-waiting.

* Why weren’t more people evacuated from New Orleans and other coastal areas before the storm?

In the case of Hurricane Katrina, meteorologists had precise forecsts broadcast to the public correctly.  In an interview with CSO’s Kathleen S. Carr, Gary Woodall, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said "all the hurricane warnings were issued by hurricane experts in Miami. And their forecasts for Katrina were phenomenal. They had their predictions in by late Friday."

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