Katrina Update #74

May 6, 2006; 9:00 PM

Katrina Tour

This past Monday we took some people on a personalized Katrina Tour. Janis met Nancy Lapakko at a coffee shop in the French Quarter the previous Friday. Nancy is from Minneapolis and was in town with friends and family for Jazz Fest. Like many people, she wanted to help in whatever way she could – and what better way than to come to Jazz Fest and spend some money in the city? Nancy has it exactly right.

Nancy was sitting alone at a larger table and there weren't many open in the coffee shop so Janis asked if she could join her. They struck up a conversation, during which Nancy commented on how good the city is looking, and that she was surprised at how much things are back up and running. At that, Janis insisted that she find someone to take her on a "Katrina Tour" and that if she couldn't find anyone, to call and we would take her. And that's exactly what we did.

We picked up Nancy, her daughter, and her daughter's friend in the French Quarter and went along the river through the Bywater and Upper Ninth ward. Then we crossed the Industrial Canal into the Lower Ninth Ward and the world changed. You've read about it before on these pages – we passed by houses on top of houses, past Fats Domino's house (which is under repair, btw), and dozens of abandoned and overturned cars. Then we crossed Claiborne Avenue to the part nearest the breech. There's nothing there. Block after block of places where homes used to be. It's like a bomb went off.

We then went out past the "rich folk's homes" by the lake, across the London Avenue canal (which also breeched), over to the 17th street canal, then back down Canal to the Quarter. The entire tour took about 90 minutes and covered 35 miles – all but three of which were under water by a foot or more after the storm hit.

So I'll say it again: Please come to New Orleans. The sliver by the river is up and running, but there is so much more to see. The scars are still fresh from the largest disaster in US history. Give us a call. We'll take you on your very own Katrina Tour.

Hurricane Katrina: A Nation Still Unprepared

The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs released its final report regarding Hurricane Katrina on May 1. Called "Hurricane Katrina: A Nation Still Unprepared," it is surprisingly well written and easy to follow — even though it is over 600 pages long. Below are their conclusions and findings, with my comments, as a local here in New Orleans following each item in red.

Four overarching factors contributed to the failures of Katrina: 1) long-term warnings went unheeded and government officials neglected their duties to prepare for a forewarned catastrophe; 2) government officials took insufficient actions or made poor decisions in the days immediately before and after landfall; 3) systems on which officials relied to support their response efforts failed, and 4) government officials at all levels failed to provide effective leadership. These individual failures, moreover, occurred against a backdrop of failure, over time, to develop the capacity for a coordinated, national response to a truly catastrophic event, whether caused by nature or man-made.

And this, of course, is the obvious part. In fact, the inability of our current leadership to efficiently and effectively work together is why I think they all need to be replaced. The Mayor, Governor, and President.
During a catastrophe, which by definition almost immediately exceeds state and local resources and significantly disrupts governmental operations and emergency services, the role of the federal government is particularly important.
It has long been standard practice that emergency response begins at the lowest possible jurisdictional level – typically the local government, with state government becoming involved at the local government’s request when the resources of local government are (or are expected to be) overwhelmed. Similarly, while the federal government provides ongoing financial support to state and local governments for emergency preparedness, ordinarily it becomes involved in responding to a disaster at a state’s request when resources of state and local governments are (or are expected to be) overwhelmed. Louisiana’s Emergency Operations Plan explicitly lays out this hierarchy of response.

Today, this much is still a mystery: who said what and when did they say it? As early as 10:23 AM on August 29th, I knew about the breech of the Industrial canal and the flooding of the 9th ward, so the Mayor and Governor had to know. By 6PM on the 30th, the Governor had ordered all remaining residents out of New Orleans. So they knew. But why did substantial help not arrive until Friday?
While several engineering analyses continue, the Committee found deeply disturbing evidence of flaws in the design and construction of the levees. For instance, two major drainage canals – the 17th Street and London Avenue Canals – failed at their foundations. Equally troubling was the revelation of serious disagreement – still unresolved months after Katrina – among officials of several government entities over who had responsibility, and when, for key levee issues including emergency response and levee repair. Such conflicts prevented any meaningful emergency plans from being put in place and, at the time of Katrina, none of the relevant government agencies had a plan for responding to a levee breach.

Let me just point this out: "deeply disturbing evidence of flaws in the design and construction of the levees." This was a man-made disaster, folks. The levees did not stand up to the amount of pressure they were supposed to – it is as simple as that. In light of this evidence, there should be no question that the government should bear most of the cost for bringing New Orleans back.
Top officials at every level of government – despite strongly worded advisories – did not appear to truly grasp the magnitude of the storm’s potential for destruction before it made landfall. Over the weekend, there was a drumbeat of warnings: FEMA held video-teleconferences on both days, where the danger of Katrina and the particular risks to New Orleans were discussed; Max Mayfield of the National Hurricane Center called the governors of the affected states, something he had only done once before in his 33-year career; President Bush took the unusual step of declaring in advance an emergency for the states in the impact zone; numerous media reports noted that New Orleans was a “bowl” and could be left submerged by the storm; the Department of Homeland Security’s Simulation and Analysis Group generated a report stating that the levees protecting New Orleans were at risk of breaching and overtopping; and internal FEMA slides stated that the projected impacts of Katrina could be worse that those in the “Hurricane Pam” exercise.

On Thursday September 1, 2005 President Bush had this to say in an appearance on Good Morning America: "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees." On Saturday September 3, 2005, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called the disaster "breathtaking in its surprise. ... That 'perfect storm' of a combination of catastrophes exceeded the foresight of the planners, and maybe anybody's foresight... " Yet all of it was foretold in an exercise in 2004 called "Hurricane Pam" (see the next item).
Beginning in 2004, the federal government sponsored a planning exercise with participation from federal, state and local officials, based on a scenario whose characteristics foreshadowed most of Katrina’s impacts. While this hypothetical “Hurricane Pam” exercise resulted in draft plans beginning in early 2005, they were incomplete when Katrina hit. Nonetheless, some officials took the initiative to use concepts developed in the drafts, with some success in the critical aspects of the Katrina response. However, many of its admonitory lessons were either ignored or inadequately applied.

I'm sorry. Let's review that one more time: "…many of its admonitory lessons were either ignored or inadequately applied." Ya think?
The City of New Orleans, with primary responsibility for evacuation of its citizens, had language in its plan stating the city’s intent to assist those who needed transportation for pre-storm evacuation, but had no actual plan provisions to implement that intent.

Actually, that's not exactly true. The city had busses that had been moved to "high ground" (which in New Orleans, means around sea level), on land that had never flooded before. It flooded this time. But it wouldn't have mattered. Most of those qualified to drive the busses had already left the city.

Last week Mayor Nagin announced evacuation plans for this year, should it be necessary. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Anyone with a return ticket will leave immediately on an airplane in a plan worked out with the airlines – who may actually bring extra aircraft into the area to assist in getting tourists out of town. Amtrak will be used to move the elderly and medical patients, and busses will be used to move the rest. The Convention Center will be used as giant bus terminal and RTA busses will be used to bring people to the convention center, where they will board other busses for leaving town. There is no doubt in my mind we will be asked to evacuate this year. We will see if this all works out.
The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, whose Secretary had personally accepted departmental responsibility under the state’s emergency operations plan to arrange for transportation for evacuation in emergencies, had done nothing to prepare for that responsibility prior to Katrina.
Some coastal towns in Mississippi went to extraordinary lengths to get citizens to evacuate, including sending people door-to-door to convince residents to move out of harm’s way. The State of Louisiana activated more than twice the number of National Guard troops called to duty in any prior hurricane, and achieved the largest evacuation of a threatened population ever to occur. The City of New Orleans issued its first-ever mandatory evacuation order.

Let's be clear on something: there is no such thing as Martial Law in New Orleans, and a "mandatory" evacuation actually means the government will not accept responsibility for you if you stay. Despite the fact that as many as 100,000 New Orleans residents did not have the ability to get out of harm's way before, during, or after Katrina, could this be why it took so long for the government to respond? "They were ordered out, they didn't go. Not our problem." Hmmmmm, I wonder…
“The U.S. Coast Guard conducted extensive planning and training for disasters, and they put that preparation into use when disaster struck,” leading to “the successful and heroic search and rescue efforts,” which saved more than 33,000 people.

Of this there can be no doubt: the US Coast Guard knows its stuff and was chiefly responsible, along with other first responders, for minimizing the loss of life due to Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans.
FEMA was unprepared for a catastrophic event of the scale of Katrina. Well before Katrina, FEMA’s relationships with state and local officials, once a strength, had been eroded in part because certain preparedness grant programs were transferred elsewhere in the Department of Homeland Security; not as important to state and local preparedness activities, FEMA’s effectiveness was diminished.
FEMA’s Director, Michael Brown, lacked the leadership skills that were needed for his critical position. Before landfall, Brown did not direct the adequate pre-positioning of critical personnel and equipment, and willfully failed to communicate with Secretary Chertoff, to whom he was supposed to report.

Under Bill Clinton's administration, FEMA was handled by the person who handled emergency management for the state of Arkansas while Clinton was its governor. When "W" took over he handed FEMA over to one of the people who helped him run his campaign – who had no experience with disaster preparedness. When that person left, the job was given to the FEMA's Chief Counsel, Michael Brown, whose only other claim to fame was as the Judges and Stewards Commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association. Take a look at this blog for some interesting comments about Mr. Brown. New Orleans' hometown band Galactic even premiered a song about him during their show last weekend at Jazz Fest called "Good Job, Brownie."
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) leadership failed to bring a sense of urgency to the federal government’s preparation for Hurricane Katrina, and Secretary Chertoff himself should have been more engaged in preparations over the weekend before landfall. Secretary Chertoff made only top-level inquiries into the state of preparations, and accepted uncritically the reassurances he received. He did not appear to reach out to the other Cabinet Secretaries to make sure that they were readying their departments to provide whatever assistance DHS – and the people of the Gulf – might need.

And he still has a job, why?
Had Secretary Chertoff invoked the Catastrophic Incident Annex (CIA) of the NRP, he could have helped remove uncertainty about the federal government’s need and authority to take initiative before landfall and signaled that all federal government agencies were expected to think – and act – proactively in preparing for and responding to Katrina.

And he still has a job, why?
DHS was slow to recognize the scope of the disaster or that FEMA had become overwhelmed. On the day after landfall, DHS officials were still struggling to determine the “ground truth” about the extent of the flooding despite the many reports it had received about the catastrophe; key officials did not grasp the need to act on the less-than-complete information that is to be expected in a disaster. DHS leaders did not become fully engaged in recovery efforts until Thursday, when in Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson’s words, they “tried to kick it up a notch”; after that, they did provide significant leadership within DHS (and FEMA) as well as coordination across the federal government. But this effort should have begun sooner.

Here is why Chertoff still has a job. (Um, before I say this, you need to know that I do not necessarily favor Democrats more than Republicans. I voted for Reagan, Perot, and Clinton.) Ready? OK.

When Bush the First was president, it was rumored that the only reason he chose Dan ("Hawaii has always been a very pivotal role in the Pacific. It is in the Pacific. It is a part of the United States that is an island that is right here.") Quayle as a running mate was because he made Bush look smart. Well, the republican party knew that Bush the Second ("Wow! Brazil is big.") was dumb as snot on a glass doorknob and twice as slippery, so that's why they put Cheney in there to babysit him. But they needed people in visible positions in the government who would make the president look good. Now I'm sorry if this pisses off some of you staunch republicans, and God knows I have stayed away from political commentary on this site. But c'mon. A true leader would appoint people who made him look good by doing their jobs in an exemplary fashion, not just make him look smarter.
Problems with obtaining, communicating and managing information plagued many other aspects of the response as well. FEMA lacked the tools to track the status of shipments, interfering with the management of supplying food, water, ice and other vital commodities to those in need across the Gulf Coast. So too did the incompatibility of the electronic systems used by federal and state authorities to manage requests for assistance, which made it necessary to transfer requests from the state system to the federal system manually.

Summer is almost upon us. I hear the ice shipments will arrive just in time for Snowball season.
Katrina resulted in the largest National Guard deployment in U.S. history, with 50,000 troops and supporting equipment arriving from 49 states and four territories within two weeks. These forces participated in every aspect of emergency response, from medical care to law enforcement and debris removal, and were considered invaluable by Louisiana and Mississippi officials. However, the deployments of National Guard troops were not coordinated with the federal Northern Command, which was overseeing the large-scale deployments and operations of the active-duty military.

No question, we were glad to see the troops in town when we returned on October 3, 2005. But let's look at that one statement again: "…the deployments of National Guard troops were not coordinated with the federal Northern Command…" How is it we can coordinate an invasion of two mid-east countries and spend almost $5 billion dollars per month to sustain the effort, yet we can't coordinate a relief effort on our own soil?
While the large numbers of active-duty troops did not arrive until the end of the first week following landfall – although National Guard troops did – and the Department of Defense contributed in other important ways during that period. Early in the week, DOD ordered its military commanders to push available assets to the Gulf Coast. They also streamlined their ordinarily bureaucratic processes for handling FEMA requests for assistance and emphasized movement based on vocal commands with the paperwork to follow, though some FEMA officials believe that DOD’s approval process continued to take too long. They provided significant support to search-and-rescue missions, evacuee airlifts, logistics management of buses arriving in the State for evacuation, and other matters.
Pervasive and widespread communications failures substantially hampered rescue and response efforts.

This has reportedly been handled, and as of this writing a multi-parish emergency communication system is being tested. It will require more than just the ability to communicate to effectively manage the next disaster in the New Orleans area, however. Officials must learn to work together.
Law enforcement was a problem, and was fueled by several contributing factors, including erroneous statements by top city officials inflaming the public’s perception of the lawlessness in New Orleans. Without effective law enforcement, real or imagined safety threats interrupted virtually every aspect of the response.
Federal law-enforcement assistance was too slow in coming, in large part because the two federal departments charged under the NRP with providing such assistance – DHS and the Department of Justice (DOJ) – had done almost no pre-storm planning. In fact, they failed to determine even well into the post-landfall period which of the two departments would assume the lead for federal law enforcement under the NRP. As a result, later in the week, as federal law-enforcement officers did arrive, some were distracted by a pointless “turf war” between DHS and DOJ over which agency was in the lead. In the end, federal assistance was crucial, but should have arrived much sooner.

A "turf war?" And a pointless one at that! I mean, if you are going to have a turf war, make sure there's a point, right?
While both FEMA and the Department of Health and Human Services made efforts to activate the federal emergency health capabilities of the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) and the U.S. Public Health Service, only a limited number of federal medical teams were actually in position prior to landfall to deploy into the affected area. Only one such team was in a position to provide immediate medical care in the aftermath of the storm.

Let me add a couple of things here: Did you know that Cuba offered – no strings attached – to send 1,586 medical personnel and 83 tons of supplies and offered to have them in New Orleans by the end of the week that Katrina occurred? In fact, they were ready to deploy and could have been here on Thursday September 1, 2005. The situation was so serious that on September 7, 2005 several prominent physicians and members of MEDICC urged U.S. authorities to accept Cuba's offer of aid.

Maybe the current administration said "No" because they didn't want the Cuban government showing they were more prepared to handle a disaster in the United States than the US Government was? The official word from then White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan was “When it comes to Cuba, we have one message for Fidel Castro: He needs to offer the people of Cuba their freedom.” Maybe the US needs to stick to its own knitting for a while and let other countries stick to theirs as well, without worrying so much that everyone have freedom.

As long as I am talking about Cuba, here's another thing you probably didn't know: In March 2006 the first World Baseball Classic was held in San Diego. The event is supported by Major League Baseball, the Major League Baseball Players Association, and the International Baseball Federation. It is like an Olympics for just baseball, and, like the Olympics is to be held every four years (although the next one is slated for 2009). The U.S. Government initially denied Cuba a license to play in the tournament on the grounds it would reap the 1 percent of tournament revenues due each participant and 5 percent if it won. Cuba agreed to wave any right to collect the revenue in order to play in the tournament (in which they came in second, to Japan, btw). Later, they asked the U.S. Government to take the winnings they would have been entitled to and give it to "victims of Hurricane Katrina left homeless in New Orleans." Their request was denied.

There is one obvious and overriding question I would like to ask here: wouldn't it be up to the organizers and promoters of the World Baseball Classic to give that money to those left homeless by Katrina, and not the government? Just asking…

Hey, here's a wacky idea! Why not send them an email and ask? The only one I could find is for Lisa Teitelbaum, who is somehow involved in licensing – but I bet she could direct you to the right person. Here. I'll make it easy for you:

STEP ONE
Copy the following text to your clipboard:

Lisa,

I am sorry if you aren't the right person to ask this, but yours was the only relevant email address I could find on the MLB web site. I noticed that the government denied Cuba the right to donate their share of the revenue to those left homeless in New Orleans by Katrina because Cuba waived its right to collect that revenue in order to play in the tournament. Where exactly did the Cuban's share of the revenue go, and what would keep the WBC itself from donating that share to the efforts to house the homeless in New Orleans? As a citizen concerned about New Orleans, I'd really like to know the answer.

If you are not the right person to be receiving this request, perhaps you could direct me to the right person?

Sincerely,

<YOUR NAME>

STEP TWO
Click Lisa's email address to open a new email addressed to her (or copy the address): [email protected]

STEP THREE
Paste the letter text above into the body of your email (you may have to copy it again, if you copied Lisa's address in Step Two).

Don't get me wrong – I love living in the US and I love the fact I can even write this and publish it in a public place. But every once and a while, it feels like I am in a cult and I can't get out: "you are free to leave any time you want, but you don't really want to leave, and we realize that — which is why we keep you here."
The Committee also identified significant planning failures that predated Katrina. One of the most remarkable stories from this investigation is the history of planning for the 100,000 people in New Orleans believed to lack the means to evacuate themselves.

Yeah. Remarkable. $5 billion dollars per month to a land area about the same size as the regions of the gulf states effected by Katrina and Rita is also remarkable.
Almost exactly four years after 9/11, Katrina showed that the nation is still unprepared to respond to a catastrophe.

But wait… there's more. The May 1, 2006 episode of Penn & Teller's Bullsh*t on Showtime (it's the only reason I subscribe to Showtime, btw) was about Ground Zero in New York and how, almost 5 years later, there still isn't an acceptable plan for rebuilding on the World Trade Center site. During the show, the owner of Majestic Pizza — which is located just 300 yards from Ground Zero — was profiled. While the rest of New York goes about its business, the area around the World Trade Center site is suffocating from the ineptitude of public officials. His business is still down 40% from pre-9/11 days. Is this New Orleans' future? Is this city to be left to whither while the politicos can't get their proverbial thumbs out of their proverbial butts? I certainly hope not. Our worst enemy isn't the terrorists, it's ourselves.

Jazz Fest

Go for the food, stay for the music. That's my interpretation of Jazz Fest. We went yesterday and headed straight over to the Patton's booth for their incredible Crawfish Sack, Crawfish Beignets and Oyster patties. Yum. A little later we had some Crawfish Monica (you can't go to Jazz Fest without having Crawfish Monica!). A little later I indulged in a fried pork shop with smothered cabbage over rice, and then topped it all off with a Cochon de Lait Po'Boy. All was washed down with another staple of Jazz Fest, Rosemint Tea.

The second weekend of Jazz Fest is normally 4 days, starting on Thursday, which traditionally is more of a "local's day," with mostly local acts. Since there was no Thursday at this year's event, Friday became the local day. It ends tomorrow with a performance by Fats Domino that is sure to bring the house down.

One of the more interesting things at this year's fest is the amount of new storm-inspired music that is being performed. I mentioned Galactic's "Good Job, Brownie" above, but they also premiered two others entitled "Garbage Truck" and "When the Levee Breaks." Another local artist, Anders Osborne several new "Katrina" songs, including "Louisiana Rain," "Darkness At The Bottom," "Oh, Katrina," and "Oh, Mama, Yeah." Cowboy Mouth had stopped performing their popular "Hurricane Party" but attempted to do it last weekend when, in the middle of the song, the power mysteriously went out. They switched to an acoustic version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" instead.

This year's Jazz Fest was another watershed moment in the history of New Orelans. As the 2006 Hurricane Season rapidly approaches, it was yet another opportunity for those of us here to take a breather and appreciate the efforts of musicians both local and national to both entertain and memorialize the event with their music.

People

Its been awhile since I did a people update. That's because everyone is pretty much going about their lives. Joe Fontana asked if I could remove references to Rebecca, since they haven't been seeing each other in awhile. I respectively declined, since that is part of the history and timeline on this site, but I said I would mention it. I guess that means he wants any available women out there to know he is also available (wink-wink, nudge-nudge).

But that got me to thinking, and about all I have to report is that Kathleen "Mama" Barrow is doing much better and getting around quite well now. Her left side is still weaker, but it she is also still improving. Coop bought himself a house out in Metairie which he plans to move into as soon as he has the floors redone and moves around a couple of walls. The afore-mentioned Joe Fontana is keeping himself busy as an extra in the various movies filming in town, including Deja Vu with Denzel Washington and Deal staring Burt Reynolds.

News

- Let's keep our fingers crossed that we don't have another Katrina-like storm this year. If we do, things could actually be worse, but not for the reasons you might think. The Army Corps of Engineers will finish work on the east levee wall of the Industrial Canal by June 1, 2006. The new wall is 15 feet tall, and fortifed, so it should keep the Lower Ninth ward — or what's left of it — dry. But the west wall won't be done until September 1, 2007 (that's two hurricane seasons away, but whose counting — um, we are, just btw). This means if we get another whopper the levee will probably overtop into the Upper Ninth ward because the existing levee wall there is only 12.5 feet tall (and probably in a weakened condition due to Katrina). Maybe it's just me, but since the Lower Ninth was prettty much decimated already, wouldn't it have made more sense to put in some temporary protection over there and shore up the part that protects what wasn't so badly damaged?

- I actually have a lot more to report, but this has already been a long update. I leave next Wednesday for California for 18 days, so my next updates will actually be from on the road. (Good thing I'm saving some up, huh?)

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