Well, I had plenty of time to mull over Hurricane Katrina in the week afterwards when we didn’t have power. All the news I got that week came from our battery operated radio and Miss 103. We heard alot of news conferences from Governor Haley Barbour detailing the recovery and cleanup efforts along the coast and closer to home. It was sad to hear about all the damage and devastation, but things were going amazingly well.

Then my sister gets power, and we all go over to her house to sit in the air conditioning for a while. Much to my surprise, Mississippi isn’t even a blip on the radar. Everything is about New Orleans. No real surprise, I guess, New Orleans is a much more “famous” city than Biloxi or Gulfport so I suppose more people relate to it. But it seems all they talk about is not how well things are going, but how badly they’re going. So what’s the difference between what CNN says happened in New Orleans, and what the local radio said about Mississippi?

The only explanation I can think of is Ratings. Showing people being rescued and people rebuilding simply isn’t as enthralling as watching the newsvan continuously drive past the same dead body hour after hour. The morbidity of it all simply drew more viewers. So given that the news had to keep the viewer’s interest, how bad was it really? And since it seems to be all the rage right now, Why was it so bad and who is to blame?

Well, this brings up alot of interesting thoughts. that I want to discuss one by one. Click on the Read More for the details….

1. Why did Mississippi have nearly 1000 National Guardsmen on the ground tuesday afternoon helping the victims, when Louisiana had none? I have to credit this one to my boss, and I found it particularly interesting. The only answer I can think of is that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco dropped the ball. National Guardsmen are under the jurisdiction of State Officials, as well as Federal. She could have called them at any time, but I guess she didn’t. Sure, the federal government could have stepped in a bit sooner to dispatch them, but they shouldn’t have had to. Why even have a State Government if the Federal government has to do all the work?

2. Why were so many people still in New Orleans? This one I kinda understand, the people left behind either a) didn’t have the means (financially or physically) to leave, or b) the people weren’t educated about the possible devastation. Educating the people has been going on for years, but at a point it’s just crying wolf. Especially after Hurricane Ivan that blew through with basically no damage at all, I’m sure the people had grown a bit complacent. But the people without the means, what about them?

One particularly bright reporter brought up that they should have fired up all the city buses and such, and offered free evacuation services to the poor and elderly. Unfortunately, he brought it up during an interview with the Director of FEMA. That’s simply not his job. Those are City and State buses, and are under the control of city and state officials. Another strike for the Governor, and add a strike for the New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. Why didn’t they enact a better evacuation plan? Probably because they too had grown a little complacent and thought nothing big would happen.

3. Why was Katrina largely ignored? In the hustle and bustle of the high-tech 21st century, we aren’t supposed to be afraid of the weather. We’re not medievel peasants praying that the sun will rise and that the moon won’t fall and crush us all. We’re supposed to be afraid of things like Biological Terrorism and Identity theft, not “weather”. Right?

4. Why was FEMA so slow in getting involved? This is a really popular one, especially given that he just resigned. So why were they so slow?

Short answer? They were unprepared. That’s not a knock against FEMA, tho. Nobody was prepared for this. Like in #3, we’re not afraid of the weather anymore. Just a bit of wind and rain, and when it’s over we’ll just send a few dozen guys to help people clean up the downed trees and it’ll all be good, right?

Long answer? The weren’t so slow. They moved as fast as they possibly could. Unfortunately, you can’t move very fast though 10-20feet of water. CNN & MSNBC spent alot of time harping on how people were dying and starving to death, but that whole time helicopters were in the air and police were on the streets doing the job they’re meant to do: Rescuing and Helping people. Funny, I didn’t see too many CNN reporters handing water to those people, or offering rides back to safety.

When a city of size of New Orleans suddenly has every single citizen in need of emergency assistance, you have to prioritize. That’s what they did, and with that many people it’s going to take a few days before they get to everyone. They keep showing all the people who waited for 3 days, 4 days, 5 days for help, but how many people were rescued in the first day or the second day?

Alot of people have been criticizing FEMA’s response as inadequate and slow, and then claiming that the director was unqualified. Honestly, who in the world is qualified to handle an event like this? How many times have major metropolitan cities been devastated in a simultaneous Levee Breach and Hurricane? I think he did a pretty good job given the circumstances, but of course the Media didn’t think so. Of course they didn’t think so because it made for better ratings showing people screaming for help than showing people sitting peacefully in a cool dry shelter after being rescued from the waters.

5. Where’s the “public outpouring of support” that everyone expected? What makes this different from last years Tsunami? Another one from a sharp reporter. When the Tsunami hit last year, the world stopped almost immediately while donations and first aid and the Red Cross swung into action to help them out. Why didn’t that happen this time for so long?

The only reason I can think is that because people didn’t want to think this could happen in the US. When it’s someone else we can claim they’re a poor third world country and couldn’t help it, or maybe even that they deserved it. But in our own backyards, it can’t possibly be as bad as it seems. Just give it a day or two and it’ll clear up on it’s own.
Now, I’m not trying to play down the events of New Orleans. It’s a mess, and even though the US Army Corps of Engineers (Yes, my boss) claims the water should be gone in the first week or two of October, it’ll be alot longer before people are living in New Orleans and partying like they used to. But they weren’t hit so hard that the city is going to sink like Atlantis. Large portions of the city are still dry, just in need of electricity. In fact, famous Bourbon Street is still dry, but the part of the city that are “watered” are going to need extensive work both from an architectural standpoint and a health standpoint.

And of course, the news today still hardly makes mention of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We get occasional mentions, but not the kind of coverage that New Orleans is receiving. In my opinion, that means we’re doing things right. I know the Stennis Center just resumed business yesterday, and that bodes well for the region. The casinos and such claim they’ll be operational again within a year, and I suspect once the infrastructure (power, phone, etc) is operational again they’ll cut the time down even more. I’m sure areas right on the water are going to need some work, after all they took the full Cat5 winds unlike New Orleans that just took the Cat2 winds (last I heard).

So, no matter how you slice it there’s plenty of blame to go around. In my mind, tho, most of the blame lies on the local officials (Citizens, Mayor, and Governor). I’m sure there are things that FEMA could have done better, but they did pretty well for what they had to deal with. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20 and everyone sees what was wrong now. But put yourselves in the shoes the day before: Given what they knew then, what would you have done differently? I suspect the answer is : not a darn thing.

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