The Blame Game

The Democrats and their support staff – the national media – are all sustaining the idea that then-President George W. Bush had somehow not responded as quickly to Katrina as President Obama was responding to the Haitian earthquake. Amid all of the suffering that we see televised daily from Haiti our government still has to Bush-bash. But comparing Haiti and Katrina is like comparing apples and elephants.

There is one small detail that the media is leaving out in stating that Bush delayed too long before going into Louisiana and particularly New Orleans – the Federal Government is not allowed to enter a disaster area within a State of these United States unless they are invited by the government of that State – and they were not. Then Governor Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana refused assistance from the Feds for days, stating that Louisiana’s National Guard would be able to handle the situation.

When looking into this I ran across numerous websites that said Governor Blanco declared a state of emergency on the 25th of August and requested troop assistance from the Pentagon on that day. The hurricane did not reach landfall until the 29th of August. It is another case of ‘say anything’, true or not, and someone will believe it especially if it fits into the mantra of a political party.

The criticisms of the government's response to Hurricane Katrina primarily consisted of criticism of mismanagement and lack of leadership in the relief efforts in response to the storm and its aftermath. More specifically, the criticism focused on the delayed response to the flooding of New Orleans.

Within days of Katrina's August 29, 2005 landfall, people were finger-pointing trying to place blame on someone for the local, state and federal governments' role in the preparations for and response to the hurricane. The media televised images of shaken and frustrated political leaders, and of residents who remained stranded by flood waters without water, food or shelter. The media wrongly alleged that race, class, and other factors could have contributed to delays in government response. In some cases it was actually reported that President Bush wanted the levees to fail and for New Orleans to flood.

In accordance with federal law, President George W. Bush directed the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, to coordinate the Federal response. Chertoff designated Michael D. Brown, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as the Principal Federal Official to lead the deployment and coordination of all federal response resources and forces in the Gulf Coast region. However Governor Blanco resisted their efforts. Eight days later, Brown was recalled to Washington and Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad W. Allen replaced him as chief of hurricane relief.

Criticism from politicians, activists, pundits and journalists of all stripes was directed at the local and state and governments headed by Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans and Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco. Nagin and Blanco were criticized for failing to implement New Orleans' evacuation plan and for ordering residents to a shelter of last resort without any provisions for food, water, security, or sanitary conditions. Perhaps the most important criticism of Nagin was that he delayed his emergency evacuation order until 19 hours before landfall, which led to hundreds of deaths of people who could not find any way out of the city.
The destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina raised other issues about emergency management. This prompted a Congressional investigation, which found that FEMA and the Red Cross "did not have a logistics capacity sophisticated enough to fully support the massive number of Gulf coast victims." Additionally, it placed responsibility for the disaster on all three levels of government.

An ABC News Poll conducted on September 2, 2005, showed more blame was being directed at state and local governments. A later CNN/USAToday/Gallup poll showed that respondents disagreed widely on who was to blame for the problems in the city following the hurricane — 13% said Bush, 18% said federal agencies, 25% blamed state or local officials and 38% said no one was to blame.

It is insane to point fingers or cast blame for natural disasters. Rational people know that President Bush didn’t cause Katrina or the Sumatra-Adaman Earthquake and tsunami, just like Presodent Obama didn’t cause the earthquake in Haiti. President Obama needs to stop looking back and bashing President Bush and look ahead to his own administration.

And for those who want to compare disasters? Apples to apples would be the Haiti and tsunami disasters. Our son is a marine and in 2005 he was stationed in Okinawa, Japan. He called the day after Christmas to say he was just walking onto a ship that was taking them to Thailand and Indonesia and other countries in the area for disaster relief. President Bush sent troops and aid within hours of the tsunami because the leaders of Indonesia and Thailand asked immediately for help.