'Understanding Katrina
Everyone knew it was coming. So why couldn't disaster have been avoided?
As the deterioration of conditions in New Orleans grew more catastrophic with each passing day last week, FEMA and its parent, the Department of Homeland Security, came under fire for their management of the rescue effort. "This is a national disgrace," said Terry Ebbert, head of New Orleans's emergency operations, as he surveyed the chaotic scene at the Superdome.
Others echoed those sentiments. "Calling this one a botched response is generous," says George Haddow, deputy chief of staff for FEMA during the Clinton administration. Jane Bullock, a former FEMA chief of staff and 22-year agency veteran, says the current federal effort demonstrates a weakened FEMA in a post-9/11 world. The agency was merged into Homeland Security in 2003, a move that critics say sparked an exodus of career professionals who feared they'd be marginalized. There was also criticism late last week that FEMA chief Michael Brown and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff lacked long-term experience in disaster preparedness.
Federal officials offered a vigorous defense. A FEMA press release said aggressive federal efforts had saved 4,500 lives and provided assistance to 30,000 hurricane victims. Russ Knocke, press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, called Chertoff an "extraordinarily brilliant and capable man" and said FEMA "has done an amazing job over the last two years."
But among those who seemed miffed was President Bush. On Friday, as the president prepared to leave Washington for a tour of the Gulf Coast, he, too, expressed frustration at the response effort, saying "the results are not acceptable."
The fallout from Katrina won't end anytime soon. Hundreds of thousands of greater New Orleans residents are likely to be left homeless for six months or more. "We really don't have a lot of planning experience with dealing with this many displaced people for a really extended amount of time," says GWU's Harrald. "Where are you going to build temporary housing? What do you do with a city that's uninhabitable?" For now, those questions will have to wait, as the rescue effort is focused on getting tens of thousands of hungry people out of the city--alive.
A Coastal City Exposed
Behind the stories of breached levees and evacuations is the underlying problem of coastal erosion. Loss of wetlands and barrier islands, which have shielded coastal communities over the past century, has left New Orleans and nearby towns vulnerable to severe storms.
SATELLITE IMAGE OF KATRINA--NOAA
[MAP LABELS]
TEXAS
LOUISIANA
MISSISSIPPI
ALABAMA
FLORIDA
ARKANSAS
GEORGIA
San Antonio, Texas - Evacuees received
Houston, Texas - Evacuees received
Baton Rouge, Louisiana - Evacuees received
New Orleans, Louisiana
Memphis, Tennessee - Evacuees received
Jackson, Mississippi
Waveland, Mississippi
Biloxi, Mississippi
Pascagoula, Mississippi
Mobile, Alabama
Mississippi River
Red River
Gulf of Mexico
Katrina's area of hurricane-force winds.
Average population per square mile: 300+ [darkest color], 160-299.9, 83-159.9, 40-82.9, 10-39.9, 0-9.9 [lightest color]
FEMA disaster areas
[Inset labels] Lost wetlands (1937-200); New Orleans; Mississippi River; Lake Pontchartrain
WETLANDS REDUCTION
Louisiana's department of natural resources estimates that since the 1930s 1,900 square miles of wetlands have been lost. As the barrier islands break down, the previously sheltered wetlands deteriorate, bearing the full brunt of gulf waves, storm surges, and currents.
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