August 29, 2005 (cont.)

...give or take a year. (See previous post.)

Most people know about the horrific aftermath of Katrina, when needed assistance took days to arrive. Both federal and local governments were inexplicably slow to respond, resulting in miserable conditions among the survivors, and many preventable deaths. Media coverage was often sensational and innaccurate, with false reports of murders and rapes; the fact that many of Katrina's victims were black made it easy for some people to believe the worst about them.

The failure of the levee system, which led to most of the deaths in New Orleans, was forseeable. Years before Katrina (as early as 1986), design flaws in many of the levees had been pointed out. (For example, soil strength had been overestimated in their construction.) Projects to upgrade the levees were underway, but still only 60-90% completed by 2005. The fact that a major hurricane had never directly struck New Orleans was undoubtedly a factor in the slow renovation.

Poor coordination between the city, state, and Federal governments was another problem. In some instances, local officials waited to receive authorization from the Federal government, which never came. New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin also came under criticism; school buses were available to evacuate those without cars, but ended up not being used. Outside aid from a variety of sources waited uselessly, in some cases for days, again for Federal authorization. Inexperienced leadership at FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) contributed greatly to the botched response. For example, FEMA head Michael Brown was unaware of conditions in the Superdome, or even that residents were sheltered there at all, until informed by CNN. Race and class (again, many victims were black and poor) also likely factored into the inadequate response.

To be concluded tomorrow (I promise!)