Disasters

[Judy]

Jenny, let me point out that it is not the city of New Orleans that I 
hold primarily responsible for this disaster. (I'm sorry that this 
wasn't clear in my original post.)  It is primarily the Federal 
government, and secondarily the State of Louisiana.  

About levee funding:
>   Jenny Here: Yes, this funding has been cut, but that does
>   not mean that the levees were neglected. The city of New
>   Orleans is constantly inspecting/rebuilding/upgrading the
>   levee system. I don't think that lack of funding was a
>   major factor in this disaster. There were after all only
>   three breaches in two levees through out the city.

Primary responsiblity for coastline and seaport protection lives with 
the Federal government.  For the past several years, the Army Corp of 
Engineers has said more money was deperately needed for the levees 
and other protections around New Orleans; Lousiana officials also 
asked for money.  They didn't get it.  As for how bad the levee 
breech was -- 80% of the city is under water; the only reason the 
rest isn't is that it was above lake & sea level to begin with. 

In 2004, FEMA conducted a training exercise, dubbed "Hurricane Pam", 
which simulated the effects of a direct hurricane strike on New 
Orleans.  The FEMA exercise concluded that the city would be under 15 
feet of water and that as many as 60,000 could die. (Fortunately, 
Katrina did not strike New Orleans directly, which is one reason the 
death toll is lower.) It is clear that the possibility of levee 
failure and catastrophic flooding were very well known.  


Jenny said:
"New Orleans had a flood plan in case the levees ever broke. 
Unfortunately, their plan did not factor in no communication, (not 
even 911 or police dispatch) no gas, and 80% of the city being under 
water, or being shot at while trying to rescue people. Even now, it 
is next to impossible to call a 504 area code land line or 
cellphone...
Even though it was not enough for the sheer magnatude of people, 
there was some aid available immediately after Katrina was over, but 
once the flooding started, that aid could not get where it was most 
needed."

In *any* hurricane, let alone one striking a city that is below sea 
level, the large majority of deaths are the result of various forms 
of flooding, rather than wind damage. Any hurricane plan that doesn't 
count on severe flooding is no plan at all. 

The fact that police communications failed shows that the New Orleans 
police either had poor training or poor equipment, or both. Emergency 
agencies are allocated a large swath of bandwidth (ie., number of 
radio frequencies) for their exclusive use, and police spend a lot of 
taxpayer money on radios, precisely so that they do not have to rely 
on phones.  My husband designs police radio systems for a living,  
and he is appalled at the reports he's hearing of no communications. 
And, if the New Orleans police lacked emergency communications, the 
State Police or National Guard should have provided it. 

As for saying that FEMA couldn't be expected to know that people in 
New Orleans were desperate and dying -- virtually everyone in the US 
knew that.  If FEMA was the last to know, then that's a serious 
problem.  Shawn, I understand your argument that emergency personnel 
shouldn't always go where the cameras are, but in the case, they 
simply weren't present *anywhere* at the disaster for days. 


Jenny said:
"The complete evacuation of the entire city was NOT ordered for the 
hurricane. The complete evacuation was ordered after the flooding 
began...."

No, a mandatory evacuation for everyone in New Orleans was ordered 
*before* the storm:
http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWL082705nagin.b7724856.html
"10:11 AM CDT on Sunday, August 28: Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a 
mandatory evacuation of the city of New Orleans in the face of 
Category-5 Katrina which was expected to make a direct strike on the 
city early Monday. The order extends to everyone in the city of New 
Orleans with the following exceptions..." (exceptions then listed are 
mostly emergency workers such as police)

Furthermore, FEMA head Michael Brown blamed residents who stayed in 
the city, saying that everyone had been ordered out before the storm:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/01/katrina.fema.brown/index.html 
"Michael Brown also agreed with other public officials that the death 
toll in the city could reach into the thousands. 'Unfortunately, 
that's going to be attributable a lot to people who did not heed the 
advance warnings,' Brown told CNN. 'I don't make judgments about why 
people chose not to leave but, you know, there was a mandatory 
evacuation of New Orleans,' he said."

The government is trying to have it both ways.  First, they tell 
people just to go to the Superdome because no transportation is 
available to get out of town.  Then, when people do just that, FEMA 
says it is their own fault if they die of heat stroke and 
dehydration. 


The bottom line is, the US government has drastically reduced its 
preparations for natural disasters.  In fact, FEMA is currently being 
phased out, and the agency that is supposed to replace it has not yet 
been created.  This should worry *everyone*, not just people living 
in hurricane-prone areas. (see 
http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion//index.php?ntid=52563&ntpid=1 )

Again, I am not trying to blame New Orleans; I think the biggest 
failure here was the Federal government. However, you seem to be 
saying that the government can not be expected to prevent disasters, 
and can not be expected to help people when a disaster strikes.  I 
say that preventing disasters and helping people when they occur is 
the *main* thing a government is expected to do.