Leaders missing in chaos
A Times EditorialWhen it counted, no one at the local, state or federal level - not even the president - was willing to take responsibility for the disaster in New Orleans.
Published September 3, 2005
Who's in charge?
As New Orleans descended into anarchy, that question could not be answered. Thousands of city residents with the fewest resources have been abandoned, left to fend for themselves. Without food or drinkable water, they wander aimlessly through a city transformed into a fetid swamp. Bodies float by, mothers with babies on their hips plead for help, while armed gangs loot stores and shoot at rescuers. Neighborhoods have turned into rooftop islands where desperate survivors signal for help.
Who will take responsibility for answering their cries?
Apparently not President Bush, yet. "The results are not acceptable," he said Friday, with no sense of urgency. "I'm headed down there right now." It's been nearly a week since Hurricane Katrina tore into the Gulf Coast and days since the suffering in New Orleans spilled over into despair. Bush's first official response was little more than a catalog of clearly inadequate supplies that were on their way. While he didn't hesitate to send armies halfway around the world, he waited too long to restore order in a storm-ravaged American city.
If not the president, then who's in charge?
Don't count on the Department of Homeland Security, whose job it is to respond quickly and effectively to large-scale disasters. Here is how Secretary Michael Chertoff answered a question about why supplies and medical teams were delayed: ". . . The answer is they are battling an ongoing dynamic problem with the water." If waist-deep water stops our nation's emergency-response apparatus, what chance do Americans have in the event terrorists strike with a dirty bomb or biological weapons? In a real test of preparedness, Chertoff and his department failed.
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco doesn't want the buck to stop in her office, either. "We don't get into the blame game," Blanco said. "We just work with what we got." As the state's chief executive, she could have had fleets of buses ready to evacuate a clearly vulnerable population, temporary shelters identified outside the city and emergency supplies at the ready. So there's a good reason Blanco doesn't want to assign blame; she would be pointing at herself.
No one is in charge at the local level either, where you expect responsiveness and accountability. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin haplessly issued a "desperate SOS," then blamed federal officials who "don't have a clue what's going on down here." How about you, Mr. Mayor? As the top official of a city that is shaped like a bathtub surrounded by water, Nagin had to know what to expect. Yet when too many people showed up at the Superdome, they were turned away. At the city's convention center, 20,000 people or more are desperate for food, water and medical care. The dead lie on the ground or are propped up in wheelchairs, yet city vehicles pass by without even slowing.
It wasn't as though no one anticipated a tragedy of this magnitude. After top officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency toured Asia's tsunami devastation, "New Orleans was the No. 1 (potential) disaster we were talking about," said then-administrator Eric Tolbert. If FEMA can't turn talk into action, who can?
The Army Corps of Engineers built the levees that were supposed to save New Orleans from the sea, but had little confidence in their effectiveness. "We knew if it was going to be a Category 5, some levees and some flood walls would be overtopped," said Greg Breerwood, the corps deputy district engineer for project management. As it turned out, a Category 4 hurricane not only topped the levees but washed them out, flooding 80 percent of the city.
There have been many individual acts of heroism, and the National Guard finally arrived on Friday with a large convoy of trucks with food. Eventually, order will be restored, but it took too long and allowed too much suffering. When it counted, no one was in charge of rescuing New Orleans from a predictable fate. Not the mayor, not the governor, not the engineering experts or the agencies created to answer such calls for help. Not even the president of the United States rushed to take charge of this tragedy, and that is a pitiful state of affairs.