Lessons of Katrina Show Paradox of Affluence
The natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina, and the human error in all governmental
response, demonstrated how the world's most powerful nation was paralyzed
by inefficiency, poor planning and a lack of leadership, Dr.
Douglas Brinkley told his Honors
Institute audience.
Brinkley presented the Fedor
Lecture, named in honor of Dr. Joan Fedor, longtime advisor and regional
coordinator, and current member of the Honors Program Committee, and her
late husband, Robert Fedor.
Brinkley's topic was The Great
Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast,
based on his book of the same name. He is a professor and fellow at the James
A. Baker III, Institute at Rice University. Brinkley was in New Orleans
when Katrina struck, and after taking his family to safety, returned to
work with rescue efforts.
Just after the hurricane passed through
New Orleans, Brinkley recalled, he felt that the city would be safe -- but
that was before the levees broke. "What followed was a major debacle at all
levels," Brinkley said. "It is a tale of two cities -- not black and white,
but above sea level and below sea level."
New Orleans can be compared
to a bowl, Brinkley said. Areas such as the Garden District and the French
Quarter were on the rim, and safe. Areas such as the Ninth Ward were in the
bowl -- resulting in mile upon mile of devastation.
Although
New Orleans has lived under the threat of a major hurricane striking for
years, when Katrina came, the city was not ready, Brinkley said. In almost
every way, the city leadership failed the citizens, and the brunt of the
disaster was borne by the most vulnerable, the poor.
Persons
with cars left. Persons who could afford to move to hotels did so. The people
without cars, without families, and without financial resources, were
trapped.
Among those taking refuge in a high-rise hotel was
the city's mayor. Many of the city's policemen left also, even stealing
cars and joining looters. The National Guard headquarters was flooded,
and all their equipment and resources were lost. One of the early crises
occurred when the city school buses, the center of a labor dispute, were
not moved from the flood-prone area, and were underwater when they were
needed to evacuate.
Eventually more than 25,000 people were
crowded into both the Superdome and the Convention Center, with inadequate
food, water, sanitation and space. The assistant police chief, in an effort
to be open with the media, shared not only facts but repeated unsubstantiated
rumors about violence in the Superdome and Convention Center, which made
it almost impossible to find out of state bus drivers willing to drive into
the city.
Even worse was the response by the federal government.
The President was due to report on a new Iraq initiative. The Vice President
was hunting. The head of Homeland Security was at odds with his subordinate,
the head of FEMA. "None of them realized what a breach of the levees would
mean," Brinkley said. The result was a monumental bureaucratic tangle.
"The decision was made to quarantine the city. To take the people
out and keep the relief workers out. "But with no way to move the people, evacuation
was slow. "The lack of planning will haunt us always," Brinkley said.
As
always, heroes rose out of the tragedy. The Coast Guard, headquartered
in Alexandria, was able to bring their equipment to the aid of the beleaguered
area. In Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, a small hospital kept its doors open
and saved hundreds. In the small towns of Mississippi, close-knit communities
helped each other.
"That's one of the lessons of Katrina," said
Brinkley. "You are only as strong as your community."
Katrina
hit almost three years ago, but some areas look just like they did days after
the storm. "What we are facing is a policy of inaction, from current leaders
who do not value the contributions of the African American and Cajun cultures
of New Orleans -- who do not understand the flyways and the role of the wetlands."
"If
the Dutch can save Amsterdam, and the Italians can save Venice, why can't
we save New Orleans?"
"At its core, Katrina is about who we are
as a country."
