Katrina exposes fatal flaws; Hurricane Katrina did more than destroy the Gulf Coast. It laid bare the failure of government at all levels.

Hurricane Katrina is the worst natural disaster to hit the United States. The storm carved a swath of destruction across the Gulf Coast that encompasses an area approximately the size of the United Kingdom. The storm's howling winds and massive storm surge, said to be upwards of 30 feet in Biloxi, Mississippi, leveled homes and businesses across the region.

At least hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives have been lost. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced, many with nothing but the clothes on their backs. A major U.S. city--home to some one million people in its metro area--was devastated.

Damages have already been pegged at a staggering $125 billion by Risk Management Solutions, a California firm. This preliminary estimate may very well be revised upward as damage assessment efforts continue. The effects on the national economy as a whole will also be staggering, considering that New Orleans, strategically located at the mouth of our greatest river, is one of the nation's most vital ports. The economic costs extend beyond property damage to lost productivity and the disruption of supplies.

By itself, Katrina was a terrible natural disaster, but it wasn't just a natural disaster. It was, in fact, a litmus test for government. When Katrina came ashore, it did so in an area that was heavily dependent on government. The region's poor were dependent on government subsidies for the very basic essentials of life; the city of New Orleans in particular was dependent on government to keep it safe from floods; and people of the region were dependent on government to save their lives and protect their basic, natural liberties in the event of a natural or other disaster. When Katrina came ashore, it did more than destroy homes and properties; it also proved big government to be a colossal and dangerous failure.

This failure is most evident in New Orleans, where much of the loss of life and property is directly attributable to the failure of man-made levees under the control of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a federal entity.

Losing the Levees

The city of New Orleans occupies a precarious position. Surrounded by water, it sits mostly below the level of both the mighty Mississippi River and the gigantic Lake Ponchartrain. Holding back these waters is one of the world's largest systems of dikes and levees. Unfortunately, the government consciously decided to limit the strength of the protective barriers. "Acceptable risks must be weighed," said National Geographic in summarizing the Army Corps of Engineers position on the building of levees, "including the statistical likelihood of catastrophic events and the possible consequences if they do occur."

It is easy to point fingers in the aftermath of disaster, but one wonders if the calculus used by the Corps in constructing the New Orleans levee system was not just a bit off. Despite the fact that New Orleans sits an average of six feet below sea level, and despite the fact that this vital port city is located in an area prone to violently damaging hurricanes (that had, in fact, flooded the city in the past), it was determined to build levees that could withstand only a Category Three hurricane. "It was fully recognized by officials that we had Category Three [hurricane] level of protection," Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, chief of engineers for the Corps, admitted to reporters shortly after New Orleans was inundated.

Moreover, as some have pointed out, and as other engineers had warned years before, it is these levees themselves that created the potential for catastrophe. In 2001, Scientific American reported that New Orleans was in grave danger because of "natural processes that have been artificially accelerated by human tinkering--leveeing rivers, draining wetlands, dredging channels and cutting canals through marshes." As a result of these attempts to control nature, the giant Mississippi Delta has been losing wild wetland areas at a breakneck pace. These wetlands formed a natural protective barrier for New Orleans. While such a barrier would do little to moderate the force of a hurricane's wind, engineers have recognized for years that the delta's wetlands would serve as effective protection against heavy hurricane-generated storm surge. The threat from storm surge increases proportionally to the loss of the wetland areas.

Clearly, New Orleans was in grave danger and this fact was hardly a secret. But with the city now dependent upon largesse and expertise from Washington to keep it safe and dry, the funding for flood control projects dried up. According to reporter Toby Eckert of the Copley News Service, "A key flood-control project in southeastern Louisiana has seen its federal funding steadily dwindle, from $69 million in 2001 to 32.2 million in 2005." Had these projects been funded locally by private concerns, they would have been properly maintained. But government had priorities other than flood control and hurricane protection. Last year, when work on one levee project was stopped for the first time in 37 years, one local official blamed the war in Iraq. "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay," Jefferson Parish Emergency Management Chief Walter Maestri told the New Orleans Times-Picayune at the time.

Even Delta wetland restoration projects may have been delayed by efforts in Iraq. In 2004, the Times-Picayune reported: "Ed Theriot, a Vicksburg-based engineer who had directed the Louisiana Coastal Area Ecosystem Restoration Study, was sent to Iraq four months ago to oversee the restoration of the 'Garden of Eden' wetlands at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that were destroyed by Saddam Hussein in the 1990s. President Bush's 2005 budget allocates $100 million for that effort." Eight million dollars, by comparison, was allocated in the Bush budget for completing a wetlands study overseen by Theriot in Louisiana.

Failure and Frustration

The "Big Easy" is gradually sinking as the silt upon which the city sits dries and compacts due to pumping operations meant to keep the city dry, and New Orleans had been flooded by hurricanes previously. With that being the case, shouldn't the city have had a plan for this type of thing?

It did, but it wasn't used. The City of New Orleans Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan states that the city will "utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas," and that "transportation will be provided to those persons requiring public transportation from the area." To do this, the plan states: "School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles, and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating." Writer Joe Mariani points out that this plan, great as it may sound on paper, didn't amount to much on the ground. "Public buses only took people to the Superdome, which was clearly not outside the threatened area," Mariani observed. "The poorest residents had no way out of town. Photos have shown fleets of school buses still parked in their flooded lots. Why those buses were not pressed into service, no one knows."

Compounding the problems local officials had in responding to the disaster is the number of local first responders who, because they are members of the National Guard or Reserve, are currently in Iraq. Even before Katrina, some were worried that such deployments were overstretching local resources. Pentagon officials say they have the resources to handle both the disaster and Iraq, and this may be true given enough time. But it is in the immediate aftermath of a disaster when local first responders are most needed. And some of these have been deployed overseas.

According to one National Guard officer, a day or more in response time may have been lost due to the deployment of some guard units, including Mississippi's 155th Infantry Brigade and Louisiana's 256th Infantry Brigade, to Iraq. "Had that brigade been at home and not in Iraq, their expertise and capabilities could have been brought to bear," Lt. Gen. Steve Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, told CNN. Congressman Gene Taylor of Mississippi, who lost his home to the hurricane, agreed that the deployments sapped local and regional authorities of both expertise and equipment. "What you lost was a lot of local knowledge," Taylor said, while also explaining that critically needed equipment was also overseas.

With government officials overwhelmed, private, outside agencies became critically important. To their credit, the Salvation Army, the American Red Cross, the Southern Baptists, and innumerable smaller charities and private citizens rushed to send aid to the victims. Corporations like Wal-Mart, Disney, Chevron and others gave millions of dollars to aid agencies in the wake of the storm. Individual citizens also rose to the occasion, many donating not just money but time. (See page 19.)

In contrast to the fast and effective help rushed to the area by private organizations, government was abysmally slow to react. In New Orleans, evacuees were herded into the Superdome and forced to stay there with little food or water and no sanitation. Across the rest of the storm-ravaged area, federal and state help, in the form of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Guard, was very slow in arriving. On September 2, the Knight Ridder news service reported that residents in the nearly destroyed city of Biloxi, Mississippi, "said they aren't seeing the promised help, and Knight Ridder reporters along the Gulf Coast said they saw little visible federal relief efforts, other than search-and-rescue teams." Joe Boney of the Biloxi Fire Department told reporters, "We're not getting any help yet, we need water. We need ice. I've been told it's coming, but we've got people in shelters who haven't had a drink since the storm."

The situation hadn't changed much as of September 9. One volunteer relief worker in Biloxi who contacted this writer indicated that the federal presence there was much smaller than he expected. When asked who was involved in relief and rescue efforts there, he responded that individual citizens from around the nation were performing the bulk of the work distributing food, water, and medical care and that these essentials were being provided to relief workers on the ground by private agencies and individuals.

Incredibly, in some cases the federal response has been to stop aid from getting through. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Homeland Security officials were blocking the Red Cross from New Orleans. "The Homeland Security Department has requested and continues to request that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans," said Red Cross spokeswoman Renita Hosler. "Right now access is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities. We have been at the table every single day [asking for access]. We cannot get into New Orleans against their orders."

To some degree, aid agencies were sympathetic to such efforts to block access, pointing to the difficulty and danger of delivering aid in a flooded city choked with debris. "Right now everybody is looking at FEMA and pointing fingers," said Jim Burton, director of volunteer mobilization for the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. "Frankly, I have to tell you, I'm sympathetic.... Even though we all do disaster scenario planning, we have to accept the reality that this is an extraordinary event."

But during an interview on Meet The Press, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, President Aaron Broussard was visibly shaken by the scale of federal ineptitude. "We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water. FEMA turned them back," said an obviously outraged Broussard, who broke down in tears during the interview. "They said we didn't need them. This was a week ago. FEMA--we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, 'Come get the fuel right away.' When we got there with our trucks, they got a word. 'FEMA says don't give you the fuel.' Yesterday--yesterday--FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards on our line and says, 'No one is getting near these lines.' Sheriff Harry Lee said that if America--American government would have responded like Wal-Mart has responded, we wouldn't be in this crisis."

Looting and Liberty

The government's response hasn't been anything like Wal-Mart's. With relief efforts failed or even stopped, those trapped in the city naturally took matters into their own hands to ensure, if possible, their own survival. As a result, desperate residents seeking food and water looted stores.

Those trapped in the city were faced with a dual threat. In addition to the challenges of living in a flooded urban area without access to food and to utility services like water, sewer, and electricity, victims were also faced, according to ubiquitous reports in the press, with roving bands of thugs. There were shootings, rapes, and murders.

The result was a war zone, ably described by the Washington Times: "Storm victims are raped and beaten; fights erupt with flying fists, knives and guns; fires are breaking out; corpses litter the streets; and police and rescue helicopters are repeatedly fired on." Troops sent in to restore law and order were given "shoot to kill" orders. "These troops are ... under my orders to restore order in the streets," said Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco. "They have M-16s, and they are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill and they are more than willing to do so if necessary and I expect they will."

This is a recipe for disaster, especially when some of those accused of looting had been doing their level best, in the absence of any help from authorities, to help starving people survive. "They are Robin Hoods," said one victim, Efian Walker, who had been helped by looters. "This guy who was doing the stealing was bringing us stuff, he was helping our children. He wasn't asking for money," Walker, who had been sleeping on the interstate, explained. "They should release all the looters. They are saving us. Without them, we would be dead." Of course, in many other cases, the looters were thugs who had no interest in helping their fellow citizens.

Nevertheless, the development of what appeared to be a police state in New Orleans--not just the "shoot to kill" order but the disarmament of the law-abiding and the citywide evacuation order--was disturbing. It points to an underlying belief among some elements that forcible coercion of law-abiding citizens is not only the government's right, but also its duty in times of crisis. And. in fact. in New Orleans it appears that government officials have essentially decided to ignore the basic rights of citizens whenever they see fit.

The earliest examples of coercion came from the Superdome and the New Orleans convention center where thousands had sought refuge. Without food. without water, and without sanitation. conditions in these facilities deteriorated rapidly. Criminal elements inside began to prey on the innocent. Despite these conditions, authorities for a time held those inside against their will, preventing them from seeking safer refuges elsewhere. The unbelievable situation led to cable network news broadcasters making emotional pleas to authorities to let the people go.

"Let them walk out of here, let them walk the hell out of here!" said a clearly distraught Geraldo Rivera on the Fox News program Hannity & Colmes, reported WorldNetDaily. "Walk to some other town. Walk someplace where you can help 'em.... These people in the same clothes, where do you think they go to the bathroom? They don't wash their hands, they don't wash their face, these babies."

Rivera's sentiments were echoed by Fox News anchor Shephard Smith who was also reporting from New Orleans. "[Authorities] have set up a checkpoint at the bottom of this bridge," said Smith on the air. "Anyone who walks up out of that city is turned around." It should be pointed out that the people held by the authorities were American citizens, but their rights were being violated with impunity, supposedly for their own good. "Over there, there's hope, over there, there's electricity, over there, there's food and water," said Smith. "But you cannot go from there to there. The government will not allow you to do it."

The Superdome and the convention center were eventually evacuated, but measures more in keeping with police state tactics continued to be used. Some residents were forced out of their homes with threats of violence. On September 7, New Orleans resident Terry White left his house to check on a friend but ran into a group of law enforcement officers. They told him that if he didn't leave, they would come back and take him from his home by force. "If the cops hadn't told me I had to get out, I never would have left," White said. "I had everything I needed in my house, but what was I going to do? They had guns."

Others, too, were disarmed and removed from their properties. That same day, business owner JoAnn Guidos packed her van and prepared to leave. Her bar had remained relatively dry, and a generator was providing the power she needed to keep her beer cold. With the influx of troops into the city, she was hoping for an upswing in business. When federal agents stopped by, though, it wasn't to drink, but to make her leave. According to the Washington Post, they disarmed Guidos and, as if they were enforcing law in the old West, ordered her and her friends to leave by noon the next day. "When you get 15 M-16s pointed at you and they line you up against the wall, it's kind of scary," Guidos told the Post.

Disarming Guidos and other citizens who were exercising their fundamental and constitutionally recognized right to keep and bear arms for self-protection was in keeping with official policy. According to the superintendent of New Orleans Police, civilians would not be allowed to keep their weapons. "Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons," said R Edwin Compass III.

Not even high-profile members of the media have been immune to strong-arm tactics. In an alarming report from the stricken city on September 7, NBC's Brian Williams pointed out that members of the military tried to intimidate reporters. "While we were attempting to take pictures of the National Guard (a unit from Oklahoma) taking up positions outside a Brooks Brothers on the edge of the [French] Quarter, the sergeant ordered us to the other side of the boulevard. The short version is: there won't be any pictures of this particular group of Guard soldiers on our newscast tonight. Rules (or I suspect in this case an order on a whim) like those do not hell) the palpable feeling that this area is somehow separate from the United States." Indeed, maybe it is. After all, how often in American history have weapons been raised against the media? "At that same fire scene," Williams continued, "a police officer from out of town raised the muzzle of her weapon and aimed it at members of the media--obvious members of the media--armed only with notepads. Her actions (apparently because she thought reporters were encroaching on the scene) were over the top."

Is this America? Is this what the Founding Fathers intended when they signed the Declaration of Independence asserting a free people's rights? Of course not. As Williams pointed out, this is precisely the reverse, the fundamental opposite, of all this great nation stands for. The guns, the military presence, the aggression against a free people by law enforcement and other agents of the state is something out of a dystopian nightmare. "There are automatic weapons and shotguns everywhere you look," said Williams. "It's a stance that perhaps would have been appropriate during the open lawlessness that has long since ended on most of these streets. Someone else points out on television as I post this: the fact that the National Guard now bars entry (by journalists) to the very places where people last week were barred from leaving (the convention center and Superdome) is a kind of perverse and perfectly backward postscript to this awful chapter in American history."

Lessons

It is too early to draw a complete list of lessons from Katrina. Some preliminary observations should be drawn now, though, in order to shape the debate in the near future. As the Gulf Coast tries to recover, the rest of the nation must examine its relationship with government. Since at least the Wilson administration, the nation has embraced the concept of big, powerful, intrusive government, thinking that, in some respects, there is no area of endeavor in which federal control should not be exercised. The South, and New Orleans in particular, has reaped the consequences of this faith in big government. When disaster struck, it was made worse by government failures.

In the wake of these failures, partisans of big government have begun to argue that more can be done in the future if only government--particularly centralized government in Washington, D.C.--is given still greater power over the lives of Americans. Just the opposite is the case. One of the lessons of Katrina is that more government is not the solution, but the problem. Some government is necessary, of course, but the more centralized and distant government is, the more problems can be expected--even if that government is trying to act in the best interests of its citizens.

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