Local Responsibility
Dean
Local officials everywhere need to read about New Orleans' failures.
Because in a disaster, those "at the top" are not in Washington DC. They're those elected at the local level. Questions about disaster planning need to be asked of every local city council and mayor's office in light of Katrina.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal notes questions people in Washington DC need to be asking, and that we should be asking of them.
Related Posts (on one page):
- Hurricane Timeline
- Local Responsibility
Interestingly, they're saying now it looks like a barge probably broke the biggest hole.
That said, there is some expectation that local governments will be overwhelmed by events. Thats no excuse for their failure, but it is the justification for the existence of an EMA at the F(ederal) level.
However, I reject the idea that because state/local government failed, this absolves the federal level of any responsibility.
Without making any excuse for Nagin's specific failure (and the one I pin most heavily on him is the faoilure to make the evacuation of NO *mandatory* early enough), the comparisons to him and giuliani in terms of response are apples and oranges. Thats because NYC was intact after 9-11 and NOLA was not - Rudy had the luxury of a fully functional city infrastructure beyond ground zero.
aside, I wish that more care would be taken to distinguish between "preparation" and "response" in these analyses in the blogsphere and MSM alike - they are related, of course, but distinct.
Don't get me wrong, when he could have made a difference (before the storm) it looks like he dropped the ball. After the hurricane passed, though, Nagin's hand seem to me to have been tied by a completely incompetent governor.
Adding to the whole mix, as if incompetence and corruption were not enough, the cry wolf nature of the media did not help any of this, imo. When every event "could be the big one" worthy of an evacuation an already jaded population isn't exactly going to jump to attention. I just wonder how many people tuned in long enough to hear the words "Category 5."
If we're going to talk about the Feds and their role, it's best if we know exactly what they did or didn't do, to pinpoint where the breakdown(s) occurred. It's also going to be important to distinguish a breakdown from something that was genuinely unavoidable.
We cannot simply have the Feds coming in and trampling state and local sovereignty. We are a federal nation, and states and localities have rights and responsibilities. Mayors don't work for Governors, and Governors don't work for Presidents; that's not how it works.
Moreover there is also the notion that catastrophes in a large city that suppliers a vital input to the economy (in NA it's oil and gas and a part IIRC) affect the broader economy. So communities that would be affected also have an interest and a stake.
I suspect that the two inquiries announced today will deal with these issues as well.
FIND ME ONE NEWS CLIP WHERE YOU SAW HIM SCREAMING FOR HELP?
Last year Florida had how many catastrophic hurricane hits?
FIND ME ONE CLIP OF JEB BUSH CRYING ON TV?
You won't find them. Instead you'll see him out there ahead of every incoming storm, reminding his citizens that if they don't evacuate they better have ID on them so their bodies can be identified. You'll find his emergency teams pre-positioned to respond the minute the hurricane passes. Restoring order as fast as possible.
FIND ME ONE CLIP OF JEB BUSH SCREAMING FOR FEMA TO RESCUE HIM?
A few enormous differences between 9/11 and Katrina are that Giuliani had a city that by and large still had power, still had all modern communications systems intact and had the resources at hand that many state governors would lack. Nagin had none of this goign for him.
I don't want to totally exempt Nagin from all criticism, but 9/11 and Katrina are not apples to apples, imo. Nagin is ripe for criticism before the storm hit, but I agree with a previous post that you would expect the local and county levels to be overwhelemed in a situation like this. At that point I start to look for the bottle neck and, in this case, it is the govenor.
Finally, comparing Nagin, a mayor, to Bush, a governor, is also an apples and oranges camparison, imo.
And I wasn't comparing the resources at hand, I was comparing demeanor and leadership ability.
Jeb and Rudy made decisions on the the spot. They didn't confer for hours with their lawyers and political consultants before putting their assets on the ground.
I thought that was obvious.