The Times Picayune has been delving into the emails and records from the state and local response to Katrina's landfall. It isn't pretty. JunkYardBlog has more.
And this doesn't get FEMA off the hook for their failures. It only shows that the state and local response was primarily focused on appearances, not actually getting things done.
Who got things done in the interim while FEMA floundered and the state and local response was nonexistent or contradictory to earlier state and local claims?
The US military and Coast Guard, which began search and rescue operations as soon as the storm cleared. They rescued people off their roofs and airdropped supplies and food. That doesn't mean that the military should be the first line of defense in a natural disaster - it should continue to be the backup when the state and local governments are overwhelmed.
However, the state and local governments must do better. And thus far, the state and local response is far from acceptable. The federal response isn't particularly good either, as the former 9/11 Commission gave a scorecard with mostly failing grades. Aid doesn't go where it should (based on per capital rather than risk). Preparedness for emergencies isn't where it needs to be, despite the billions spent since 9/11. One particular example is the FDNY's use of older fire engines as spare vehicles when regular vehicles break down. That, by itself, isn't necessarily a problem, but the City is required to retire vehicles older than 10 years, and one such older vehicle played a role in the serious injury of a firefighter who was thrown from a fire engine as a door latch failed. I'd argue that part of the problem is bureaucratic inertia- people and organizations may not want to change, or adjust how they do their business.
And one has to wonder why it took four years for some leading politicians to wonder where all the 9/11 aid for NYC went. This is an issue that crosses political affiliations. Democrats and Republicans alike didn't particularly care to deal with the difficult task of keeping track of where and how all the money was spent. They were more concerned with making sure that NY got the money in the first place that oversight wasn't a major concern.
We need to hold our elected officials accountable, since they're the ones who are supposed to hold the bureaucracies and government agencies accountable for their actions. If there's a failure of oversight, that must be rectified as well. We, as taxpayers, must demand better.
UPDATE:
Also covering the post mortem of Katrina and the incalculable failures at all levels of government (and I still put the bulk of the blame at the state and local level for not doing a better job before the storms hit): MacsMind, The Subjective Scribe, Crazy Politico Guy
UPDATE:
Drew at the Jawa Report comments on the Democrats and their antics. They can threaten a filibuster to stop all action on judges whose positions they dislike, and yet are apparently helpless to take action on freeing up parts of the radio spectrum for emergency communications, which could affect millions of people in need of prompt assistance in a crisis. Curious. If this was truly all the fault of the Republicans, Democrats would try to use the same tactics to improve national security?
Technorati: flood aid; hurricane katrina; katrina aid; hurricane rita; slidell; biloxi; gulfport; pascagoula; nagin; blanco; barbour; hurricane rita; hurricane wilma.
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