U.S. leadership blamed for chaos
Unpreparedness result of cuts, shifts
By: KAVITA PILLAI
STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR
The largest disaster in U.S. history has highlighted the nation’s preparedness, or lack thereof, for a catastrophe of the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina, experts say.
And the Bush administration now is facing the heat as criticism of the government’s response mounts.
The death toll in New Orleans and other affected areas continues to rise, and speculation that many, if not most, of those deaths occurred in the days after Katrina’s immediate impact is rampant. On Sunday, the U.S. accepted an offer of aid by the United Nations.
“Of course, the United States is … the country in the world best prepared to cope with such a disaster,” U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a statement Thursday.
“But the sheer size of this emergency makes it possible that we can supplement the American response with supplies from other countries, or with experience we have gained in other relief operations.”
UNC political science Professor George Rabinowitz said the government’s response to critics should be to act quickly in handling the continuing crisis.
“The best solution to their image is to basically stay active … and make the situation better,” he said.
He added that criticism stems from the slow initial response to the disaster.
“It was something that everybody knew was going to happen,” he said. “And it was shocking that we were so ill-prepared as a government to handle it.
“When Katrina was moving from a Category 3 to a Category 4 and even 5 and was moving toward New Orleans … there was a slow reaction. It was basically moving slowly, when they should have been moving very rapidly.”
Jonathan Bernstein, president of Bernstein Crisis Management, a national crisis management consulting company, said funding cuts contributed to a shortfall in the response.
“The government from the top down has been in a Catch-22 situation, wanting to not increase taxes and at the same time having more emergency preparedness to fund,” he said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, has taken a budget hit, Rabinowitz said, adding that the increase in awareness of terrorism actually could have negatively impacted the nation’s readiness for a disaster like Hurricane Katrina.
“Part of the reason we were so ill-prepared was, as attention switched from natural disaster to potential disasters from terrorism, a lot of resources were shifted around,” he said.
“We’re in the transition phase where we’re not prepared for any disaster very well.”
Bernstein said the government is not entirely at fault. He noted that the governor of Louisiana must invite FEMA in order for the agency to help.
“If the governor, five days before the hurricane hit, had asked for both National Guard troops and FEMA to come in and be in position, they would have been better prepared,” he said. “There’s culpability at the state level.”
He added that the private sector also is not adequately prepared for natural disasters. “Ninety-five percent of American businesses are either completely unprepared or grossly underprepared to respond to crises of any kind.”
He said advanced planning for Hurricane Katrina, with food and water supplies in place, could have avoided some of the problems the area faces now.
“A whole lot more preparedness could have gone on,” he said. “The zoo down there was prepared, with multiple days of food set aside for their animals. And they’re fine.
“It’s kind of sad when the animals are taken care of and the people are not.”
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
